Shanti, 55, rummaged through the broken remains of what was once her one-storey house, frantically searching for utensils to cook food in. She couldn't salvage everything when the building, in South Delhi's Mehrauli, was razed on February 10. "We weren't even given an opportunity to shift out all our furniture and other household articles. Bulldozers came in the afternoon and destroyed everything. My family of eight has been left on the streets," said Shanti, a day after the Delhi High Court stayed the DDA-led demolition drive. Among the first houses to be demolished, she asked how the stay from the court would help those who have nothing left. "My family and I have been living here for 20 years now. DDA officials came in December and put up a notice asking us to vacate the land. We were always scared but did not know this would happen so suddenly. My daughter was supposed to get married later this month; how will that be possible now?” Irfan, 34, and his family have been camping opposite what was his two-storey house in the area, ever since it was razed by bulldozers on Tuesday afternoon. Tears welled up in his eyes as he said: "We have lived here since 1985 and paid all our electricity bills. We even have identity cards with this address. How can we be thrown on the streets without any rehabilitation? What about my school-going children who are forced to sleep under the open sky?" Irfan wishes the High Court's order had come earlier. "The damage has already been done and all we have is a bunch of bricks lying at the spot where I have grown my family. I work as a daily wage labourer and cannot afford a loss like this.” A day earlier, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had ordered the Delhi Development Authority to stop the demolition drive at Mehrauli and adjacent Ladha Sarai village till further instructions. Mopping away pieces of bricks, 71-year-old Mohammed Shakir said it feels like he has lost everything, including years of hard-earned money he put into making the house. "My wife, son and I will set up a charpoy at the spot as we have no alternative place to go to. A few of our neighbours whose houses were saved after the stay order have offered us shelter and food, so we are surviving on the goodwill of others," Shakir said. Apart from residential properties, several commercial buildings have also been demolished. Arif, 38, who owned an AC repair shop inside the now demolished building near the Mehrauli bus terminal, said that more than the destruction of his office, he has sustained losses worth lakhs as several ACs and their parts were buried under the rubble after demolition. "What will I tell my clients now? All my work documents and repaired appliances have been razed. I'm now looking for another place on rent," he said. The drive, which began Friday, comes a month before a proposed G20 meet at the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The DDA has said that several "illegal" structures have cropped up in the area over the past several decades and the drive is intended to reclaim the government land. Spending the night has been a tedious task for those displaced. While some have been sleeping on cots after clearing the rubble left after the destruction of their houses while some in the open ground near the forest or some at parking spaces. Raju Khertla, 32, has been sleeping with his three-member family in a parking lot five minutes away from his destroyed house. “It is very uncomfortable but we are managing somehow. neighbours are offering us space to live but how long can we stay at their place,” he said.
