Mysuru: The city has bagged the top spot in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan twice as the cleanest city in the country. The efforts for this should no doubt go to the Corporation and a few organisations. However, it slipped in ranking to the fifth spot this time because many other cities caught up with Mysuru.

Is the City as clean as it is made out to be? A reality check of a few areas presents a grim picture. Already dengue fever is threatening the lives of many. Even though it is the home town of the Chief Minister, many families do not have a proper shelter or a roof over their head. Every person on this earth has a right to food, clothing and shelter. However, they are forced to live on the pavements, under the trees, on top of the trees and in huts in low-lying areas. Here is one example of these pathetic conditions of the poor.

The poor families who do not know what it is like to live in a home, are living in the slum where rainwater gushes in. This is the scene at the huts adjoining the houses built under NURM (National Urban Renewal Mission) in Bharat Nagar near Sathagalli Bus Depot on Mahadevapura Road, where about 90 poor families are living.

This settlement comes under the Hanchya Gram Panchayat Limits and the hutment dwellers have been provided with electricity, water, Voters Identity Card, Aadhaar Card and Ration Card. However, they do not have roads, toilets and the NURM group housing underground drainage water flows into the huts.

Most of them are daily wage earners and they are forced to live in sub-human conditions with stink all around, even as snakes and other poisonous animals lurk around the huts. One’s heart melts seeing the plight of these people. This is a clear violation of Human Rights. Why do the authorities concerned not respond to the problems of these poor families?

These questions arose in the light of the Chief Minister tweeting to the Deputy Commissioner to provide assistance to Abdul Khader’s family who are living in abject poverty in a small shed on the Mahadevapura Road near KSRTC depot. Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep who visited the spot was stunned to see with his own eyes the misery, the pain and sheer helplessness of the people living in such squalid conditions.

Recovering from the shock, the DC has come forward to provide shelter to these 90 families houses under NURM scheme. This Kharab land comes under Hanchya Grama Survey No. 278. He has directed Tahsildar T. Ramesh Babu to give a report in this regard.

Randeep told Star of Mysore that he had written letters to Corporation Commissioner G. Jagadeesha and Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board Executive Engineer seeking information on providing shelter to these families of Bharat Nagar under group housing scheme.