20, East Park Road

Jabalpur

12th February, 20××

The Editor

Nai Dunia

Bhopal

Sub: Mushrooming of slums and illegal colonies

Sir

Through the columns of your prestigious national daily, I express my dismay at the mushrooming of illegal colonies and slums in the big cities of India.

The haphazard urbanisation is the root cause of all such evils. This led to the proliferation of many illegal colonies and clusters of slums in every big city. The unmanageable population of the cities makes a mockery of all development plans. Thousands of people are living a miserable life in these stinking slums. They don’t have even basic civic amenities. Pure drinking water is not available to them. There is no provision for the sewerage or drainage system. Water-logging is a major problem specially during the rainy season. Life in a slum and life in hell are not much different. The government must act before our cities get chocked with the stink of slums. It can slow down the migration to cities by opening agro-based cottage industries in the region. The negligent and corrupt officials who let such illegal settlements to flourish, must be sacked or severely punished. Only a concerted drive on the part of the vigilant authorities can save our cities being choked from the stink of slums.

Yours faithfully

Ram Lakhan