Urban poor and dalits are missing from Modi’s Smart City project map. They are being evicted and chased away. The BJP-JD(U) government is carrying out this drive throughout the State. The capital Patna is a prime target. The CPI(ML) is carrying out a drive to ‘Save the homes of the poor and settle the poor’. The Party demands that land and housing should be made a fundamental right; and a register of landless and homeless people should be made everywhere, from the Panchayats to Patna. In Bihar lakhs of families are settled in on river embankments and the agenda for their permanent housing has been pending for years. Their number in Patna is large and they are being evicted. Their number has come down to even 10% of the number as per a survey conducted during British times. All Musahar bastis have been razed and destroyed, and other bastis too are on the brink of destruction. Unauthorized colonies in many big cities across the country have been recognised, but Patna remains an exception. During the Congress regime small housing colonies for the landless had been constructed for name’s sake, and Lalu Prasad converted the Lohanipur-Rajendra Nagar hutments into a pucca colony. Even these colonies are now being eyed by the land mafia. The Jagdev Path Musahari is battling this problem and it is only the CPI(ML)s struggles which have so far protected the colony from the land mafia. A huge movement is required on the issue of land and housing for the poor.
