CUTTACK: Nearly 309 slums dot Cuttack city. Of these, only 264 are authorised. Over two lakh people reside in makeshift ramshackled structures in these slums, where basic facilities like drinking water and toilets are absent.
Living under extremely poor sanitary conditions and unhygienic surroundings, the slum dwellers are highly prone to diseases like diarrhoea, dengue and malaria. Though more than 35 per cent of the city’s six lakh population lives in slums Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is yet to chalk out a development policy for improving the sanitation condition of habitations.The slum dwellers said city sanitation programmes like garbage collection, road cleaning, etc hardly reach the slums. “No municipality worker comes here to clean the roads or drains. Heaps of garbage are not lifted for days together as no one comes to clean it up,” said Jagabandhu Das of Jai Mangala slum at Ranihat.
While 60 per cent of the slums do not have proper roads or drainage system in place, a majority of the habitations do not have access to safe drinking water. The dwellers are dependent on Mahanadi, Kathajodi river and Taladanda canal water.
Moreover, in the absence of community toilets the slum dwellers are forced to defecate in the open on the embankments of the nearby water body or canal posing health hazards. There were only 44 community toilets for 307 slums in the city. Most of those are in a dilapidated state and unfit for use, said the dwellers.
Three years back, the civic body had signed an agreement with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide assistance for construction of 32 community toilets in the slums under project Samman to improve slum sanitary condition. While 24 community toilets were constructed, the rest 8 are yet to be constructed.
On the power supply front, most dwellers have drawn connection through illegal hooking risking their as well as the lives of hundreds of others.
“Slum dwellers are also residents of the city. They have the right to avail all civic facilities and live in a proper environment but the civic body has been ignoring their problems,” said Brundaban Das Azad, president of Akhila Odisha Jhopadi Patti Mahasangha.
Slum Improvement Officer, CMC, Shyam Sundar Sethy said construction of eight community toilets could not be taken up due to dispute. However, steps are being taken to improve condition of the slums.