Demolitions Add To Winter Woes In Delhi

The series of demolitions in Delhi have again stirred chaos among families who have nowhere to go as the National Capital starts getting colder.

In the hustle bustle of Malviya Nagar’s Khirki village, a densely populated area located in South Delhi, a family sits quietly amid a huge rubble.

Indu (40) is sleep deprived and is sitting on a cot located amid heaps of rubble, her head between her hands. Besides her, Sunita (39) is dazed and tired.

On December 6, the Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Police took out a demolition drive that turned Indu’s and Sunita’s house to rubble.

Hailing from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, Indu is the third generation to reside at the land, which is claimed to be disputed. “My parents and my grandparents before that lived here. We have been living here since the 1970s,” she told The Citizen.

Both the centre and the state government were criticised by the civil society for conducting massive demolition drives in Delhi before G20. While many thought the nightmare would end post that, demolition drive once again started here.

Indu is one of the seven families that reside in a small land located near Krishna Temple in Khirki Village. Divided into several rooms, all families here are blood relatives, and had been living there for decades.

Anil, 29, who was at the time of the demolition at home had also received injuries and was temporarily detained by the Delhi Police. Narrating the nightmare, Anil told The Citizen that prior to the demolition no notice was given to the family.

“Had we known this was going to happen, we would have made some arrangements before,” he said.

On December 6, at 9 a.m. when the children were in school and the rest of the family members were gearing up for work, two bulldozers came into the area.

Anil’s mother Chandrawati told The Citizen she was cooking food, and her son was in the washroom when the demolition started. “It happened so suddenly. Anil was inside the washroom and came running outside. He could have suffocated under the rubble. They did not give us any warning,” she said.

Anil, averred that as he approached a police official for paperwork or notice, the official started heckling him. “He caught my collar and I caught his. I was not letting go demanding they show us a notice. However, instead of listening to us, the police official bit me and pushed me away,” Anil said.

He showed The Citizen bite marks on his hands. Police detained Anil and his cousin till the demolition was finished.

Indu said that many of the family members had gone to the village to attend a wedding and their rooms were locked. “They did not consider anything and razed everything to the ground,” she said looking helpless.

According to the activists on scene, the demolition drive carried out by DDA followed a court order over a dispute between the slum dwellers and nearby locals. “We have been living here since the 1970s. If there was an issue, they could have asked us before to do something about it,” Indu said.

The family had an ice and tea shop just where they lived and that was their daily income as well. Their shops were also demolished during the drive.

Helplessly watching, Chandrawati said that her husband recently had a heart attack. On requesting police officials to at least consider his plight, Chandrawati claimed the former said “it is none of their business” and pushed her husband to the other side of the road.

Raj Kumar, Chandrawati’s husband is in his 50s and had come from the hospital where he had to go for his weekly check-up. A lean looking man, Kumar said that he has all the paperwork to show that they have been living here for a long time.

“We vote from here, we have Aadhar cards from this address. I am a third generation [resident], my parents and brother have died. I am not the only one who has the papers to prove it. They could have listened to us, instead of razing everything to the ground,” he said.

A case, is at the moment, stuck in Tis Hazari court and has been running since 1992. According to the case filed, the land is claimed by a local resident at Malviya Nagar named Rambaksh Arora, who said that the family have “occupied” the land.

The plea Arora has filed stated that the land belonged to his father late Mela Ram since the Independence of the country.

However, later the property came under the control of the Ministry of Rehabilitation of Government of India. Despite the fact that the land was under the ministry, the plaintiff claims that he still has ownership of the land, while the families are illegally occupying it.

The families, however in their reply averred that the plaintiff has no connection whatsoever with the land and is not in possession of it and that the land was taken over by the MCD.

The dispute is still in court, but despite that the family claims no notice was given to them by either of the authorities. Raj Kumar who is the main plaintiff in the case has given all the documents to prove that the land does not belong to Arora but to them.

With their house razed to the ground and nowhere to go, the family is living in the open without any food or water. The women are using the washrooms of nearby hospital and temple, while the children have not taken a bath ever since the demolition.

As parents held hands with their children picking them up from schools, Indu and Sunita’s daughters came home to a razed building.

Pooja, who is also a part of the family, is a single mother, her deceased husband was Rajkumar’s elder brother. A mother of three daughters, she has no idea what they will do now. “It is difficult. They have been wearing the same uniform ever since the demolition because all our possessions are under the rubble,” Indu said.

Chandrawati with tears in her eyes said that they are helpless and there is no word of rehabilitation from the authorities. It is to be noted, The Citizen has earlier reported how authorities fail to follow the protocols listed in the rehabilitation policies.

The same was told by the other families here.

Meanwhile, Chandrawati also said that she was also beaten up by male police officers and at the time there were no women officers. “Is this how they treat the common people? They pushed us elderly people, beat up my son and ruined our whole lives,” she said.

Amidst the rubble, a small temple stood intact. When asked, Indu said the authorities refused to demolish the temple. The temple stood at the corner of the houses. While some bricks were demolished, the temple was not touched. “Our lives and homes had no value,” Indu added.

The Citizen tried to reach out to Delhi Police and DDA authorities but did not receive any reply.

Meanwhile, in a different corner of Delhi, the same pattern emerged.

On November 21, many jhuggis in Delhi’s Sunder Nagar Basti were bulldozed to the ground. The homes were bulldozed, by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA), while the Delhi high court refused to stay the demolition drive.

Just across the road from Sunder Nursery, flanked by the World Heritage Site Humayun’s Tomb, the basti features on the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board’s (DUSIB’s) list of 675 ‘protected’ jhuggi-jhopdi clusters. While demolishing these settlements, authorities must comply with protocols drawn out in a 2015 policy called the ‘Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation & Relocation Policy’.

However, that was again not followed. Demolitions also took place in Nizamuddin.

Meanwhile, earlier in November, hundreds of residents from Jharoda Majra in Northwest Delhi’s Burari blocked GT Karnal Road had protested against eviction and demolition orders issued by the Delhi government’s Land and Building department.

Identifying the residents as “encroachers”, the order cited the Delhi High Court’s directions and ordered the residents to vacate the property/premises by November 19, so demolitions could take place the following day. It further warned that “if the property/land is not vacated and handed over within the stipulated time period, the occupants/encroachers will be solely responsible for any damage to the goods lying in said land after the start of demolition”.

According to reports, the land owner in the case, Shobhat Ram, migrated from Montgomery (now Sahiwal district) in Pakistan to Delhi in 1947 and sought alternate land under the Displaced Person (Compe-nsation and Rehabilitation) Act in 1954.

While he received some land in Punjab Khor as partial satisfaction of his claim, a balance of 2 acres and 11 agricultural units remained unallocated. In 1961, this land was granted to his son Ram Chander in Jharoda Majra.

According to the residents however, they had purchased land from local agriculturists and settled in the area as far back as 1985. A month ago, they said the Land and Building Department began putting up eviction notices.

Meanwhile, earlier in August, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in response to questions posed in the Lok Sabha, disclosed that they have identified more than 55,000 “illegal constructions” and “encroachments” over the last six years.

The MCD also identified more than 42,000 unauthorised constructions and encroachments. The New Delhi Municipal Council identified around 140 illegal constructions/encroachments, and a special task force identified more than 11,000 during this period.

The task force was constituted on April 25, 2018, with a specific mandate to oversee the enforcement of the Master Plan for Delhi 2021 and Unified Building By-laws for Delhi. It actively identifies and addresses complaints about unauthorised encroachments and illegal constructions.

According to data provided by the Ministry in the Parliament, the number of illegal constructions and encroachments identified in the national capital has declined over the years.

The Delhi Development Authority earlier also claimed that “no houses were demolished” to beautify the city for the G20 Summit, as confirmed by Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore, in a written reply to a question asked by RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar.