Maria Akram, TNN | Nov 28, 2014, 03.11AM IST
NEW DELHI: Two days after the forest department cleared off encroachments in south Delhi, DDA swung into action at Tara Camp near Sarai Kale Khan armed with a high court order and demolished around 60 shanties on Thursday afternoon. All that now remains of the camp which has existed since 1984 is a heap of rubble. The residents, mostly rickshaw pullers and labourers, said they neither got an eviction notice nor were given a chance to gather their belongings.
Sanoj Kumar, who works at a nearby hotel, returned from his afternoon shift and saw bulldozers parked at one end of the slum. People assumed that the machines had come to remove the old trucks and cranes dumped in the area for years. "But soon they started tearing into the rows of houses. We kept asking for some time to take out our belongings, but they just didn't stop," he said.
Another dweller, Baldev's voter ID card showed that he had been living in the settlement for 30 years. A painter by profession, the 56-year-old was out for work when his eldest son came rushing to tell him what had happened. "Our houses are gone. We will somehow survive the chill, but how will my one-month-old granddaughter?" His granddaughter, a premature baby, is undergoing treatment at a government hospital.
Most of the residents said they hold voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards and ration cards, but the officials did not budge. Jagdish Kumar, who had two jhuggis, has almost every government document that a Delhi resident has. "If I have a PAN card, ration card, Aadhaar card, and voter ID from this address, then how is my house illegal?" he asked.
Officials said they could not stop the demolition as it would violate court orders. However, social activists helping the residents argued that the timing of the demolition could've been different as the bitter winter lies ahead. "The order is almost eight months old. Where will these women and children go?" asked Anil Goswami, an activist.