Kamgar Putla slum residents oppose their shifting due to Pune Metro work

Pune, July 17, 2019 : Over 300 residents from the Kamgar Putla slum, who are opposed to shifting from the existing location near district court in Shivajinagar to Lohegaon due to make way for Pune Metro project, staged protest outside the District Collector office on Wednesday afternoon.

The residents have said that they were not opposed to the metro but want in situ rehabilitation. The Metro’s viaduct is passing through the slum area and an interchange station is coming up near the slum. The plot of land still has not been handed over to Maha Metro.

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has already announced a rehabilitation project for slumdwellers, but it is not being executed. The residents on Wednesday held an agitation to press their demands.

The residents said that the Kamgar Putla slum has been regularised by the government and a SRA project for them was to come up but the work has not progressed for the last 12 years. Now, the Pune Metro is coming up there. Even after Metro work, a lot of space will remain vacant but government wants to remove the whole slum which they will oppose. They said that slum dwellers should be allowed to co-exist with Pune Metro.

They submitted a petition in this regard to District Collector Naval Kishore Ram.