THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The capital city has lost 13 slum-development projects worth Rs 75 crore under the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme as a consequence of the Corporation's failure to involve local communities in the preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs). Ten projects were lost as a result of non-availability of land, two projects had to be abandoned because of local protests, and one because of the unsuitability of the land.
The denouement in these cases, including the unsuitability of land, have been chalked up to the failure of the Corporation to get local support or their failure to enlist civil society groups or NGOs to help, mobilise and organise local communities and engage urban poor communities in a participatory planning process that would adequately respond to their needs.
“Local participation is especially necessary for determining the type and location of services, development of housing designs, ensuring that upgraded or new settlements have access to schools, health care services, roads and transport systems,” a top Urban Affairs Directorate official said.
The official said that no information was available in the files to verify that the DPRs were prepared through participatory planning. In the absence of participatory planning, there were local protests, unwillingness of beneficiaries to pool their land for construction of flats, and inclusion of ineligible beneficiaries.
Primarily, the BSUP projects involved construction of dwelling units and provision of basic services such as water supply, sanitation and community services. All these 13 projects should have been completed before March 2015.
