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Journalism of Courage
Since 8 am on Wednesday, the 1-acre slum area located adjacent to the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) community market at Sector 12 A is buzzing with activity, witnessing heavy deployment of police personnel and HSVP officials. They are here to take part in an anti-encroachment drive based on a January 16 order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court that sought clearance of unauthorised structures.
Around 10 am, bulldozers and men with hammers arrive, to begin the demolition drive, which goes on till 5 pm. In all, 123 shanties are demolished while 86 are spared.
Those spared, according to officials from HSVP, formerly Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), have been found eligible under Haryana government’s Aashiyana Scheme that provides homes to slum-dwellers.
But for those not eligible, the demolition drive could not have come at a worse time.
“They did not even wait until Diwali,” says Sarvan Lal (55), who has been living in the slum for over 50 years. Maintaining that there are 209 houses in the slum, he points to notices that the HSVP had pasted on 86 homes on October 3, to indicate that these structures are not be demolished.
The notice clarifies that residents eligible for Aashiyana Scheme or those who have got a stay order from the court against the drive are exempt from drive. To avoid damage to the houses that are not to be demolished during the operation, the notice also instructs the residents to mark their main doors with their and their father’s names.
Lal now plans to spend the night outside a shop, his belongings tied up and kept in a cot.
Nearby, a group of women shout at the officials. “Our family had a two-floor house here, we had been living here for 60 years, all gone now. This place was a jungle when we had come to stay,” says Radha (45), whose husband works as a cobbler.
Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority District Town Planner R S Batth, in his capacity as nodal officer for encroachments, was present at the site as the duty magistrate during the demolition. “In all, 86 residences were found to have legal status, they were not demolished today… But eventually, these houses would also be demolished in the next three months after alternate living arrangements are made,” he told The Indian Express.
Asked about the plight of residents who have been living here since decades, he said, “What is illegal is illegal.”
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