MARGAO
Is the migrant-inhabited Moti Dongor set for a makeover, from a migrant colony dotting with basties and hutments to the rehabilitation of the slum dwellers inhabiting the hillock?
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in his budget speech has announced that his government is committed for the rehabilitation of notified slum dwellers in urban areas of Margao, Mormugao and Panjim by making a special provision for the purpose.
Amongst the migrant-inhabited areas dotting Margao constituency, right from Moti Dongor to Azad Nagar, Fakir bandh and Khareband, the Moti Dongor was notified as a slum by the government years ago.
How the government will go about the rehabilitation of the slum dwellers in Margao, Mormugao and Panjim remains unclear for the moment, whether the slum dwellers will be rehabilitated at the site itself or shifted to another location.
As far as the Moti Dongor slum is concerned, the sword of Damocles had been hanging over the heads of the migrants inhabiting the hillock for over a decade after the Administrator of Communidades, South had issued a demolition order, only to be later stayed by the High Court.
It isn’t clear whether the government will rehabilitate the slum dwellers with its own funds or through funds from the National Slum Development Board. Sources in the Urban Development Ministry informed that the rehabilitation of the slum dwellers is at a planning stage and the scheme will take shape only after a consultant is appointed by the government to prepare a report how to go about rehabilitating the slum dwellers.
