5 min readGurgaonJul 17, 2021 05:31 PM IST
First published on: Jul 16, 2021 at 01:35 AM IST
Day 2 of the demolition drive in Faridabad’s Khori village was marked by confrontation between residents and police, with nine people being taken into preventive custody for allegedly making “provocative speeches” during a protest Thursday.
According to police, the incident took place around 8.30 am. An FIR has been registered based on a complaint submitted by a police officer who was at the spot. “Around 100-125 men and women gathered there and started staging a demonstration and shouting slogans against the administration. Three-four men and four-five women also started provoking the crowd by making provocative speeches,” alleges the complainant.
The complaint said additional police force was called and those making “provocative” speeches were taken into custody. Speaking to The Indian Express, DCP (NIT) Anshu Singla said, “We took nine people into preventive custody from Khori village this morning.”
Residents in the village, however, alleged police lathi-charged them before the demolition began. In a statement, National Alliance of People’s Movements reiterated these allegations: “Today morning, on July 15, police resorted to violence against Khori residents who protested peacefully on the streets of Khori Gaon.”
In a video purportedly from Khori village that has been circulating online, a person in plainclothes can be seen slapping and pushing a man, believed to be a resident of the village, until the latter hits a brick wall and falls. The person can then be seen helping the man get up, joined by two other persons — one wearing riot gear — and leading him away from the spot.
DCP Singla said: “There is a video that is circulating but it is impossible to comment on the nature of the video, when it is, who are the people, whether it is doctored, not doctored. However, if we receive any formal complaint, we will certainly enquire into it and deal with the matter according to law.”
On allegations of lathicharge, Singla said: “The demolition took place peacefully to my knowledge, I don’t know what is being alleged but there was no lathi charge done by Faridabad Police.”
Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, Garima Mittal, also said: “The demolition proceeded smoothly and peacefully today. There was no violence.”
The demolition comes after the Supreme Court on June 7 had directed the MCF to clear all encroachments on “subject forest land” in Khori village in six weeks. The civic body had finally started the work on Wednesday morning.
Although a rehabilitation policy was released by the MCF earlier this week for relocation of residents, wherein they will be allotted flats in Dabua Colony and Bapu Nagar, only those people are eligible for it who have an annual income up to Rs 3 lakh and meet one of three conditions – the name of the head of the family is on the voter list of the Badkhal assembly constituency as of January 1, 2021; the head of the family has an identity card issued by the Government of Haryana as of January 1, 2021; or any family member has an electricity connection issued by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam (DHBVN).
“We have set up a camp near Khori village where residents can sign up for the rehabilitation scheme. However, it has only been a day, we are still waiting for applications,” said the MCF Commissioner.
Residents said the rehabilitation policy is unfair since it will not cover several people who have documentation from Delhi and not Haryana. Those eligible like Shipali Das (35), who works as a domestic help and is a single mother to a teenage daughter, are not aware of the policy at all.
“I have a Parivar Pehchan Patra from Haryana, but I have not heard of any rehabilitation scheme, nobody has told me anything about it,” said Das.
The demolition of her home, she said, will undo all the progress she has made since her husband abandoned the family several years ago: “I paid Rs 1 lakh just to purchase this land; I did the labour myself and built a house on it at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh. Now all of that is going to be taken from me in a single day… I have nobody else to depend on… I do not know where we will go if our home is demolished. I am still hoping for a miracle.”
The demolition follows a Supreme Court order on June 7. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav) 
Share
