Post-Partition receipts do little to stop bulldozer march in Mehrauli

Considering how old the buildings were, owners said they did not think much of the notices that popped up in the area in December. For Harmeet Singh (45), the demolition made no sense. “This property was sold to us in 1959 after the Partition. A total of 900 gaj was sold to my grandfather Dalip Singh, and they seem to be intent on demolishing multiple buildings that stand on this land. There are 10-15 shops in addition to homes,” said Singh, whose three-storey building has shops on the ground floor while his family lives on the top floor.

Singh walked around with papers on Monday, frantically trying to halt the demolition. One of the documents he held was a copy of the ‘certificate of sale’ which said that Dalip Singh had given the highest bid in a public auction held in pursuance of the powers conferred upon the official issuing the certificate under Section 20 of Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilit-ation) Act, 1954. The sale by public auction was on August 17, 1959, going by the certificate, and Dalip Singh was declared to have been the purchaser of the property from December 1960 onwards. Harmeet Singh also had a receipt issued by the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Government of India, for payment by his grandfather in 1960. Singh pointed out that certificate of sale mentioned Mehrauli and not Ladha Sarai.

Dalip Singh’s property was eventually divided and multiple buildings came up on the land, said Kshitij (34), whose family owns a three-storey building that was demolished on Monday. The building, which included a shop and godown, would be around 40 years old, he said. “Notices were stuck almost all over Mehrauli. We didn’t think these buildings would be demolished,” he said.

Following the HC order, Singh’s building was not demolished Monday.

The buildings were all vacated Monday morning, when police, CRPF and DDA officials showed up for demolition. One housed a mobile store, another a branch of a financial corporation.

Sunita Manchanda and her family had goods in a godown in one of the buildings demolished on Monday. The goods, mostly electronics, were carried out in cartons and placed in stacks in a park that lay close to the buildings. “The property is registered. A notice was issued on December 12, but this is an old property,” said Manchanda, who also mentioned the public auction held in the 1950s.

Similarly, Jagdish Chandra Bhatia, 76, lost two shops in a building that he said was around 40 years old. “We bought the building from somebody else. There were 12 shops in two buildings demolished today,” said Bhatia, a Mehrauli resident.

One of Bhatia’s shops was rented to Shifaad Ali, 33, from 2012 onwards. Ali, who ran a car mechanic shop, has lost his source of livelihood, he said.

The drive continued till 5.30 pm. It began on February 10 to clear what DDA says are “unauthorised encroachments” on government land that is a part of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park and Ladha Sarai village. DDA said the exercise is meant to “reclaim” the land for its “rightful use by all citizens as a park”. Multi-storey buildings and shanties were demolished near Andheria Mor on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.