New Delhi: Fifty-year-old Sarita Begum rummaged through the rubble searching for a blanket to cover her two young grandchildren who were sleeping beneath a tree in the courtyard of a dargah. Not far from her, thirty-one-year-old Heena wrapped her arms tightly around the toddler in her arms, in an attempt to keep the child warm as she tried to put the boy to sleep. Begum’s search meanwhile, is interrupted by a group of children playing ‘ghar-ghar’ (houses) on the rubble.
Ironically, it is their ghar which no longer exists, as people in Mehrauli’s Kala Mahal area were left without a shelter after their homes were razed Monday as part of an ongoing anti-encroachment drive by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
The DDA is under the control of Lt. Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The demolition drive to clear encroached forest land in Mehrauli, is being carried out allegedly without consulting the Delhi revenue minister, and comes ahead of next month’s G20 meeting scheduled to be held at the Mehrauli archeological park in South Delhi.
Started on 10 February, the DDA’s demolition drive will reportedly continue till 9 March, despite a Delhi government order for fresh demarcation of the disputed area.
According to the DDA, nearly 1,200 square metres of government land was reclaimed during the anti-encroachment drive in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area Friday.
Meanwhile, those who lost their homes in the drive claim that they are bearing the brunt of differences between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre.
“Three generations of my family have lived here and now, they are telling me that it is unauthorised construction. For the past 45 years, they had no problem and now suddenly,” said a teary-eyed Begum.
While DDA Public Relations department official Bijay Patel declined comment when ThePrint reached him over phone, Delhi revenue minister Kailash Gahlot alleged that no notice was served to the occupants before the demolition of the buildings.
“It was observed that the department had not issued notices to the said individuals while carrying out the demolition exercise among other fallacies in the process. Revenue officials admitted that before the demarcation of the khasra (land record) numbers in question, no notice was served to the occupants of the said khasra numbers and obviously there was no participation of the said occupants at the time of conducting the said demarcation,” Gehlot told reporters Sunday.
However, despite a government order issued Sunday, the demolition drive continued Monday and shops and houses located at Mehrauli Bus Terminal were pulled down by earthmovers under heavy police and paramilitary presence, even as residents repeatedly pleaded with the authorities to stop the demolition.
ThePrint also reached DDA Land Pooling commissioner, Tariq Thomas, on phone, but he also declined to comment, saying he was not authorised to speak on this issue.
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‘Another Shaheen Bagh in the making’
Forty-year-old D.K Thakur was teaching a group of students Monday at the private institute run by him and his sister near Mehrauli Bus Terminal, when a few policemen allegedly barged into the classroom and asked them to vacate the premises. Thakur claimed he requested for some time as the students were in the middle of their classes, but the police paid no heed and forced them out.
“The way they are doing this is absolutely wrong. My sister and I teach paramedical students here and they didn’t hear us. The female personnel dragged my sister and the students ran away in fear. They didn’t even listen to us,” alleged Thakur, who said he was dependent on the income from the institute.
Beating her chest and wailing, as she saw her house being razed, a woman shouted, “They are trying to make Shaheen Bagh out of Mehrauli.” Around her hundreds of men and women, pleaded in unison to the authorities to stop demolishing the houses.
Last year, a demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh — the location of the widely publicised 2019-2020 sit-in against the Citizenship Amendment Act — was stopped by residents who physically blocked the bulldozers.
According to residents of a two-storey house at Mehrauli bus stand, a demolition order issued by the DDA was received by some residents in the area on 14 December, but the number of their house was not part of the list. It was partly razed Monday, as the residents managed to get a stay order from the Delhi High Court.
“We were not given any intimation. My grandfather made this house. We have been living here since then. Today, we asked them to wait till we get a court order, but they didn’t. They kicked us out of our house,” said 20-year-old Harkirat Singh.
Many in the area believed they were facing the consequences of a tussle between the Centre and the state government.
For Ashok Kumar, who has been living in the area since 1996, the “incompetence of the government” has resulted in such a situation.
“It took me 45 years to make a house here and it took seconds for their bulldozer to raze it down,” said Kumar, who works as a welder, while checking the steel almirah that he was able to recover from the rubble.
“Politicians came and gave us assurance, but for what? On 10 February when the houses (in Mehrauli) were being bulldozed, we were told ours will not be touched. The next day, I was sleeping inside when I heard a group of people talking. I came out to find that the bulldozer was preparing to knock my house off. They didn’t give us time to even remove our items, he said, recounting the ordeal.
Another resident, Ramesh Kumar Arora, who also owned a business in the area, stared at the remains of his mobile shop that had been turned to rubble.
“I am still paying EMIs for the shop (the shop was 40 years old, but had been extended later). I have paid the taxes religiously. Then why are they doing this to my shop? This shop is like my son that has stood in my rough times and today, I am powerless, not able to save it,” Arora said.
Meanwhile, residents of Silver Oak society, a highrise in Kala Mahal, who had obtained a stay order from the HC after shanties in the area were demolished on 12 February, are anxiously waiting for the next hearing, scheduled for 16 February.
The residents, in their petitions, argued that their properties were “self-owned” with proper documentation and have been in place for over 25 years.
One of the residents of Silver Oaks, speaking on condition of anonymity, rued investing all their savings in the house in 2017.
“We are still paying an EMI of Rs 35,000 every month. We have the demarcation papers from 2017 when we bought the house. Is it our fault that the demarcation was done wrong? Why are we suffering then? We are heartbroken. We have not eaten anything since yesterday,” she added.
“Lt. Governor’s adamant stance”
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (Malviya Nagar) legislator Somnath Bharti blamed the BJP government at the Centre for the demolition while talking to ThePrint.
“This is utter disrespect of the constitution by the BJP government. The demarcation has not followed due process. The demarcation was carried out by the revenue department, but neither the CM nor the revenue minister was taken into confidence,” he claimed.
Adding that he had met Saxena Monday, he claimed the latter was “adamant” to go ahead with the demolition drive come what may.
“Saxena said that do whatever you want to do, but the demolition will take place. He said that he wants to clean Delhi,” claimed Bharti.
He added: “We are deeply disappointed and are moving the court. I foresee disaster in Delhi as for the LG and the BJP only Lutyens Delhi is important, while the slums, shanties and colonies are being erased.”
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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