Towards a better Colombo

The decision by the Government to provide alternative housing facilities to the displaced residents in Slave island is a praiseworthy move that should be commended without reservation.

The residents at Glennie Street who were evicted in line with a previously mooted city improvement plan have already been relocated at temporary housing.

This is until a fully equipped four storeyed housing complex is constructed in Dematagoda to accommodate them. According to UDA sources quoted in one of our reports yesterday, this Housing complex would be ready within one year where the 300 families displaced would receive permanent residency.

Until such time the housing complex in competed the Government has consented to pay a rent of Rs.8,000 per family to those who have decided to take up alternative lodgings to the temporary ones currently provided.

We hope this will be a harbinger for permanent residencies for settlers in all the unauthorised dwellings in Colombo and with it the gradual elimination of slums that dot the City landscape like an eyesore.

Today large areas in Colombo have been encroached on by squatters. Slums have mushroomed without let or hindrance, providing breeding grounds for crime and other vices. These slums today represent the city’s underbelly where the drug trade thrives and provides a haven for underworld hit men to carry out their dastardly deeds.

It needs no reiteration to realise that the battle against anti-social elements by the law could be all but won if serious efforts are made to clear these slums. The very location where last week’s eviction took place is a good example of this.

This is not to say that these people should be ignored and left to fend for themselves. They are part of our society that has to be nurtured and provided for as a fundamental right.

This is why the decision to relocate them in conducive surroundings has to be acknowledged and appreciated.

As TV footage showed little children too were caught up in the melee and in a way their relocation could do them a world of good by being given the opportunity to grow up in an environment where they could grow up as equals with the rest of society.

Had they been living in their present surroundings one could but only imagine the path they would tread. There are armies of such people living in unauthorised settlements with nowhere else to go. Many prefer to stay put regardless of the attractive alternatives offered by the Government.

They have good reasons to do so. This episode is also serves as a good lesson for all politicians who lend their patronage for unlawful settlements.

The UNP which tried to make political capital out of this incident should be asked if it approves of illegal encroachment for which it too has contributed in no small measure during its days in office.

Today the city of Colombo is bursting at the seams where accommodation is at a premium. According to reports at any given time the city of Colombo has a floating population of one million people.

Added to this is the sea of business establishments and the ever burgeoning construction which may not leave enough space for human habitation in time to come.

Today’s rapid flooding of the city, the mounting garbage problem, increasing crime and a multitude of other vices has a direct connection to the overcrowding of the city leaving room for its ugly side to rise to the fore.

The Government should take stock of the situation and decide on a blueprint for a planned development of the City in line with the methods devised by other overpopulated capitals in the Asian countries.

Moveover it should try to prevent mass migration to the capital city by devising alternate plans to develop the provinces. Overcrowding can bring with it its own social problems that can pose a challenge to the Government.

Concurrently measures should be taken to secure whatever available land space in the city from encroachments and politicians strictly ordered not to sponsor illegal occupation of land. It is the accumulation of this situation over the years that has led to the current state of affairs.