About 780 hutments allegedly erected illegally on the reserved plot of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were demolished on December 16, 2017, clearing the 75,000squaremetre area for expanding the capacity of Katargam Water Works. SMC officials claim that the slum dwellers had illegally encroached upon the reserved plot of SMC next to Katargam Water Works. To this end, they also built fences around the area. The settlement was illegally set up on the reserved plot. The slum dwellers were given many notices and they were even asked to take the benefit of the economically weaker sections (EWS) scheme of the municipal corporation. We will start allotting the EWS houses to the slum dwellers," an official said. On December 22, 2017, around 500 slum dwellers held a protest outside the Katargam zonal office of the SMC. These dwellers, mostly belonging to the Devipujak community, wanted immediate biometric survey done of the place from where they were evicted and given alternative accommodation. According to sources, antisocial elements take rent, water and electricity charges from the slum dwellers and help them encroach public places. In 2018, the SMC started building houses for nearly 80,000 slum dwellers from 354 slum pockets of the city in Katargam, Varachha, Dindoli and Vesu as part of its slum clearance drive. We plan to provide housing to the urban poor of the city under schemes for EWS, low income groups and middle income groups," an officer of the Slum Redevelopment Department of the SMC, said. However, it is important to note that only 280 families from Katargam are eligible for resettlement.