This morning my wife was deploring the fact that the state government is proposing to remove inner city slums by moving them to areas like Kattupakkam and Pallikaranai. Her immediate concern of course was about the possible loss of our house maid! Will the denizens of the cities several slums move so easily? How easy would it be to convince them to uproot themselves from their comfort zone and move to a new, albeit, more comfortable area? More importantly, how will we provide gainful employment?
The solution partly is to create a transportation infrastructure that will take them swiftly and at low cost to their jobs in the city. Or else we would create pockets where these illiterates would quickly degenerate to organized crime and prostitution. The Soho of Chennai would be born if not the Bronx!
