Demolition drive resumes near Yamuna, residents say they had protection from HC

On Wednesday morning, the JCBs returned and tore down more houses. “The court’s order is for a limited number of jhuggis. DDA has not conducted demolition exercise on those,” a DDA spokesperson said, referring to the houses of the 11 residents who were listed as petitioners.

The Gyaspur basti area has two clusters. The cluster in which demolitions have been taking place has 53 houses, according to the basti’s pradhan Ajab Singh.  After Wednesday’s demolitions, the 11 petitioner’s houses remained standing.

Sachin Kumar (18) is one of those whose family’s house was demolished on Thursday. His mother Manju Devi’s voter ID card from 1995 lists Gyaspur Basti as her address.

“The machinery arrived around 7.30 in the morning and the demolitions started by 9 am. We thought that we have protection at least till July 11 because of the court order,” said Sachin, whose father works as a driver and who lives with his family of five there. He says they will spend the coming days at the site of their home.

Buy Now | Our best subscription plan now has a special price

Neetu Singh (34) sat among the blue rubble of her demolished home in the stifling heat of Wednesday afternoon. Like all the other residents of the area, her family lived in a pucca home. “My in-laws have been here for 40 years. I’m in shock right now but we’ve been expecting the bulldozers to come for our home after last week’s demolition even though we didn’t get any notice. We have nowhere else to stay in the city so we’ll be right here till we are given some other place to stay,” she said.

In their appeal, the petitioners have asked that a survey be carried out in the area in accordance with the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy 2015 to work out a rehabilitation plan before demolition.

In its submission to the court during the hearing on the petitioners’ appeal, the DDA had argued: “What have been termed as jhuggi clusters by the petitioners are in fact sporadic jhuggis which have come up in the area… They do not qualify as a basti or cluster and, therefore, the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy 2015 is not applicable.”