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Fourteen years after being temporarily relocated, slum dwellers from Pir Vasahat in Akota, Vadodara have vacated municipal land after receiving permanent homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. In 2010, they were displaced for a road widening project and offered housing in distant Pratapnagar, which many declined due to work-related inconvenience. Instead, about 30 families settled near Akota burial ground on the condition that they'd leave once nearby homes were provided. That promise was fulfilled recently, with new homes allotted near Sun Pharma Road- close to their jobs and community ties-marking the end of a long wait and a successful civic housing resolution.
Nearly a decade and a half after being temporarily resettled, a group of slum dwellers from Pir Vasahat in Akota, Vadodara have honoured a civic agreement by vacating the land they had occupied. Their decision comes after the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) finally handed over permanent homes to them under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at providing affordable housing to the urban poor. Advertisement
Back in 2010, residents of Pir Vasahat were relocated to make way for the Akota-Dandia Bazaar Road widening project. The civic body initially offered homes in Pratapnagar, but the distance from their workplaces proved to be a major deterrent. Many of them refused the far-flung flats, requesting an alternative location closer to their livelihoods. In response, the VMC permitted them to temporarily settle on a plot near the Akota burial ground, on the clear understanding that they would vacate the land once they were allotted nearby permanent homes.
While some families either moved to the original housing offered or made private rental arrangements, about 30 families remained in tin-roofed shelters on the municipal plot. Their long wait finally came to an end recently when the civic authorities completed housing allotments near Sun Pharma Road a location well within reach of their daily work and community networks.
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