AGARTALA, August 8 (TIWN): The Bhumi Suraksha Committee on Friday sought land allotment for slum dwellers at Lenin Colony and Jyotirmoy Colony at 79 Tilla area in Agartala in exchange of land acquired in the slum areas by government authorities. The forum today submitted a deputation to District Magistrate (West) Abhisek Singh saying that the slum dwellers in both slums were staying in the locations after a verbal assurance from Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and the then Agartala Municipal Council chairperson Late Shankar Das.

 “We have received a notice on April 25, 2013. We have been trying to attract the notice of the authorities since then without much gain”, chairman of the Bhumi Suraksha Committee Anjan Bikash Choudhury said.

He added that the forum demanded the municipal authorities to stay away from evicting any slum residents who had documents of ownership of land. “We have seen attempts of forceful acquisition of land in several instances. We want to make it clear that the slum dwellers wouldn’t tolerate any illegal act of land grabbing”, Choudhury said.

Mayor of the Agartala Municipal Corporation recently said that AMC had 83 recognized slum areas according to a recent survey held by the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). Few slums selected for development as a part of the ‘Slum Free City’ plan were Mulla Para and Bitterban in ward no. 08, ward no. 11 in Battala Crematorium area, East & West Ambedkar area and Ward no. 30 of Hrishi Colony, he had said.,