90,000 houses allotted to slum dwellers in 2 yrs: Minister

Ninty thousand houses have been allotted to slum dwellers here in two years, Gujarat Urban Development Minister Anandiben Patel said today.

The houses, which are constructed on private land, government land and land acquired under the Urban Land Ceiling Act, have all facilities, the minister said while laying the foundation stone of an affordable housing scheme in the city today.

She appealed to the allotees to occupy the houses themselves and not sell or rent them to others.

Such houses are being constructed in the municipal corporation areas of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar, she said.

Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the state government will try to provide houses to 2.5 crore people staying in urban areas of the state.

Meanwhile, Narendra Ravat, president of the city unit of the Congress and a large number of party workers were arrested by the police today for holding a demonstration demanding publication of the Manjula Subramanium Committee report on the collapse of the twin buildings in Madhavnagar in the city on August 28, claiming 11 lives.