The slum-scam is several decades old, as evident from the following old news scraps. (1) SLAMMING SLUMS [Videh Upadhyay, The Statesman, Monday, April 10, 2000] The supreme court observed: %u201CRewarding an encroacher on public land with free alternate sites is like giving a reward to a pickpocket. The department of slum clearance does not seem to have cleared any slum despite it%u2019s being in existence for decades. In fact more and more slums are coming into existence. Instead of %u2018Slum Clearance%u2019 there is %u2018Slum Creation%u2019 in Delhi.%u201D (2) SC fixes civic code: No slums, no littering [The Times of India, Friday, February 18, 2000] (Also, SC bans slums in Delhi [Press Trust of India, The Statesman, Friday, February 18, 2000]) NEW DELHI: In a major judgment ... the Supreme Court has observed ... %u201Cestablishment or creating of slums... appears to be good business and is well organised ... Large areas of public land, in this way, are usurped for private use free of cost. Its difficult to believe that this can happen in the Capital without passive or active connivance of the land owning agencies an/or the municipal authorities. ... %u201Cthe promise of free land, at the taxpayers' cost, in place of a jhuggi, is a proposal which attracts many land grabbers. Rewarding an encroacher on public land with free alternate site is like giving a reward to a pickpocket.%u201D (3) DDA vice-chairman held guilty of contempt [The Hindu 22 Sep 2005] Delhi High Court observed: "(DDA) have no business to allow their la
