Displaced people construct houses in Jhalana's foothills

Jaipur: The Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), a few months back widened the Jhalana bypass but shrank the foothills of the Jhalana forest. Ironically , even before the traffic lights of the intersection could be operational, the displaced people had constructed houses in the foothills haphazardly , making it look like a slum.
Similar is the situation on the Delhi highway where people have cut into the hills to construct shops and houses.Right from Transport Nagar to Delhi Bypass road people have encroached on government land and cut hills to construct shops and houses.In Jagatpura, unplanned colonies have been set up on dry riverbeds with absolute disregard to norms.
But these are just a few to name. It is the same story across the state.Everywhere, the poor are encroaching upon government land for housing, raising an alarm for the government to address the situation. . Experts feel that unless policies minimize resource guzzling and wastes with appropriate architectural de sign, building material and operational management for the entire building stock for the underprivileged, there can be massive environmental débâcle in the building sector.
Recently , the encroachments on Jhalana bypass were demolished to construct a 100-metre wide road between Jhalana crossing (Jawahar Nagar end) and Apex Circle as mentioned in Master Plan 2025. Nearly 190 shops and houses were demolished to widen the road.
But just a stone's throw away, there is an entire illegal colony that over the last 15 years has been thriving in the foothills of Jhalana hills on government land, replete with electri city and water connections. Following the trend, those recently displaced have also either rented houses or built new ones in the Jhalana forest foothills, turning it into a concrete jungle.
As per Census 2011, the number of households in urban areas of Rajasthan is 32,16,243, which is 25% of the total households in the state. Housing stock calculated as per number of Census houses is 3,09,072. A shortage of 5,02,605 units exists in the state. As per Census 2011, total 3,94,391 households are residing in slums with 73,236 population. Hence, the total number of housing units to be provided is 8,96,996 units. But, this was six years back and with population explosion and new slums coming up by the day , the state government statistics might prove grossly wrong.
“Anyone constructing on government land will be moved. We recently demolished illegal construction on government land which were either encroachments or short-term leases.As for the rest, since we were unclear of the JDA boundary we are carrying out a PT survey to clear the land of encroachments. The government is sensitive to the requirement of housing for all. Affordable housing is amongst the priorities of the government,“ said Shikhar Agrawal, Jaipur Development Commissioner.
Housing for poor ignored: Survey
According to a survey, “The country is locked in a frenzy of construction to meet the demand for homes, offices, and shops. A staggering two-third of buildings that will stand in India in 2030 are yet to be built, but this data does not take care of the poor.Institute of Urbanology substantiates that between 1997 and 2002 the government and builders together built 5,00,000 houses in urban India but people built 8.5 million units in informal settlements.“ However, in Rajasthan there is 95 per cent of total housing shortfall for economically weaker sections.