JNNURM city development plan anti-poor: Medha

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission's (JNNURM) city development plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area proposes to shift about 72,000 poor families from their homes, social activist Medha Patkar said on Friday."The renewal mission is only a removal mission for the urban poor," Ms. Patkar said. The convener of the National Alliance for People's Movement was here to discuss the implications of the JNNURM.In the name of development, the plan seeks to change land use patterns to benefit corporate companies and the rich, Ms. Patkar alleged.The creation of Special Economic Zones was another ruse to convert farmland in rural areas around Chennai into industrial and housing townships. The townships get priority for water and power over the earlier residents of the area.

Ms. Patkar said the poor, who settled along river margins, were called encroachers but, after eviction, these lands were sold off as prime real estate. The poor people, who toiled to build and maintain Chennai, should be given land in the city to live."You must be ready to unite, act together, march to the Secretariat and court arrest if your concerns are not addressed," Ms. Patkar said.Geetha Ramakrishnan, a leader of the Unorganised Workers' Federation, said the poor were often blamed for others' mistakes. K. Shanmugavelayutham, convenor of TN Forces, put forth the following demands on behalf of the workers: bring back the Land Ceiling Act and allocate surplus land for the poor; issue land documents in the names of both husband and wife; build houses for the poor close to where they can find employment and reserve space for marketing products of women's cooperatives.