Question

Several poor people in the city work as domestic servants as well as work for the Corporation, keeping the city clean. Yet the slums in which they live are quite filthy. This is because these slums seldom have any water and sanitation facilities. The reason often given by the Municipal Corporation is that the land in which the poor have set up their homes does not belong to them and that slum-dwellers do not pay taxes. However, people living in middle class neighbourhoods pay very little in taxes compared to the amount of money the corporation spends on them in setting up parks, street lighting facilities, regular garbage collection etc. Also as you read in this chapter, the property taxes collected by the Municipality makes up only 25-30 percent of its money. Why do you not think it is important that the Corporation should spend more money on slum localities? Why is it important that the Municipal Corporation provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get?

Answer 1

I think it is important that the corporation should spend more money on slum localities because slum-dwellers are also a part of our society. They need education, sanitation, rehabilitation and other facilities as the common people avail. They are also human beings. They lack even basic amenities of life which cause spread of many diseases among them. They are the citizens of our country. So in order to achieve our constitutional ideals the Municipal Corporation should provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get.