Misguided NGOs

The coming together of a clutch of non-government organisations (NGOs) to demand that the fundamental right of unauthorised slum-dwellers and encroachers in Mumbai be protected has come as a great surprise. Would someone please educate these non-government organisations with misplaced sympathies there is no fundamental right to housing for a citizen wherever he wishes? A citizen cannot, under any law of this land, build a home on public land such as a footpath, playground, recreational ground, roads, national parks, private land which is not owned by him, etc. Then on what basis are these so-called NGOs (which ironically consist of a couple of advocates’ bodies too) demanding their “fundamental right to housing”?
Further, if these encroachers have set up their homes by breaching the law then what right do they have to vote in that constituency? If at all they have to vote, it should be in their place of origin where they own a legitimate home (i.e. in the state from he has migrated to the city).
We urge the honourable judges of the High Court to dismiss this frivolous intervention petition by these bunch of misguided NGOs who, by demanding “Right to housing anywhere” and “voting rights” for the law-breakers have shown utter contempt and disregard for the law of the land.
If yet the members of these NGOs are keen on providing “housing rights”, then let each one of them first accommodate at least two families of the slum-dwellers’ families in their own homes for a minimum of five years, then demand voting rights for the same.

– GR Vora,Mumbai v