Why are we being targeted now: Question from homeowners amid Mehrauli demolition

“A month ago, some notices were stuck in the locality. But we didn’t know what that was about. Last night, around 9 pm, two policemen came and told us we will have to vacate and the building will be demolished the next morning. Nothing could be moved overnight and, in the morning, the CRPF, police and DDA officials were here to empty the building,” said Khartla’s son-in-law Kuldeep Phartyal, 34.

Khartla, 57, irons clothes for a living and was prepping for his daughter’s wedding, scheduled for February 23. Khartla and his family of four had sold another property in Sangam Vihar and bought the flat around three-four years ago at a cost of around Rs 17 lakh, he said. “We didn’t think there was anything illegal about this. The property was registered,” he added.

Lal, 55, a halwai, moved into the building about a year ago. “It was registered in my son’s name. Flats in the building cost anywhere between Rs 18 lakh and 22 lakh. For work, I moved here from Agra where we have some agricultural land,” said Lal, whose family of around 10 lived in a 2BHK in the building. Both Khartla and Lal were unsure about where they would go next. “We will look for something temporary tonight and then see tomorrow,” Lal said. All 10 units in the building were occupied, residents said.

In addition to the multi-storey building, two earthmovers worked together to bring down three smaller homes in the neighbourhood Saturday. Among them were residents who were incensed that some of the other multi-storey buildings in the area had managed to procure a stay order from the High Court, while their homes were demolished. The High Court’s status quo order came for eight plot numbers in ward 8, Mehrauli.

Shaheen, 22, whose house was pulled down, said, “Our houses are already gone, and there were at least 11 people living here. What was the point of ordering a halt on the demolition after it was done? I’ve been living since I was born and the house has been around for longer.”

On Saturday afternoon, Reeba Saifi, 34, and her daughter Aleena emptied their house, the latter carrying the books she needed for the upcoming class 12 exams. “They came in the afternoon and told us to vacate the house. Notices were issued some time ago, but where are we to go? Now we’ll have to look for something on rent. The bigger buildings have got a stay and our homes have gone,” said Reeba, who lives with three daughters and a son and works in a beauty parlour. A portion of their house was demolished on Saturday evening.

Around 4 pm, a communication from the Delhi government said that Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot has ordered fresh demarcation to be conducted in the disputed area and that the “Kejriwal government intervenes in Mehrauli demolition drive; asks DDA to stop demolition”. Nevertheless, demolition continued till around 6 pm. The CRPF, police, DDA officials and earthmovers left by 6 pm, leaving rubble behind.

Gahlot has directed the District Magistrate (South) to conduct fresh demarcation of the land in the area and ensure people who are likely to be affected are present during the exercise. A communication from Gahlot’s office said that the minister had received two representations on the matter from Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti and residents of the Ladha Sarai village, and a meeting of officials was held.

“It was also stated in the said representations that demarcation carried out by the Revenue Department was illegal and void-ab-initio and was neither done in accordance with law nor the principles of natural justice were followed prior to the same… In the meeting it was observed that the department had not issued notices to the said individuals while carrying out the demarcation exercise among other fallacies in the process,” the communication said.

Gahlot said, “It is an admitted position that village Ladha Sarai is a densely populated area and the building/residential houses in the said village are very old. In a meeting dated 10.02.2023, it was admitted by Revenue officials that before the demarcation… no notice was served to the occupants… and obviously there was no participation of the said occupants at the time of conducting the said demarcation. Thus, it is apparent that said demarcation has been conducted by keeping occupants in dark and no hearing of any nature whatsoever was given to the aggrieved persons.”

Residents of those buildings where the High Court has ordered that status quo be maintained, meanwhile, remain a worried lot. Most have loans to pay off and said they had no reason to suspect the buildings were illegal. Residents in multiple buildings in the area were unsure about whether they should prepare to move out despite the court order.

On Saturday, these buildings had the court order pasted on the walls outside. At Pearl Residency, which lies down a narrow lane with a row of four-five storey buildings, Amit Chaudhury, 34, who works at an MNC, said the property itself was five years old. “The notice that was pasted on the walls on December 12 did not mention the khasra number that our property lies in. It’s on the basis of this that we’ve got the stay. Our properties are registered. Electricity and water supply was cut briefly yesterday before the status quo order,” said Chaudhury.

The building has around 15 flats with a single one costing around Rs 35 lakh. Chaudhury said the builders of the multi-storey buildings in the area were all different but were mostly local builders from Mehrauli. Pearl Residency, for instance, had two different builders, he said.

“This is for no fault of ours. Banks are involved since our loans have been sanctioned. Property tax is being paid. Now we’re waiting for the court to decide,” said Praveen Prabhanjan, 40, who works in a private company. Their building lies next to an unoccupied building that was partially demolished Friday, one in which all units had been sold, according to residents in the area.

Kusum Srivastava, a resident since 2019 of Forest View Apartments that is among the buildings on which status quo has been ordered, said most buildings in the area have come up in the past five to seven years. “When the building was being made, what was the DDA doing? The demarcation needs to be done again,” she said.

Sheetal Thakur, 43, a resident of Blue Sky Apartment, a four-storey building on which the status quo order applies, said she moved into the building a year ago. “This building came up only about a year ago. We paid 22 lakh and have a loan on it. The EMI was, in fact, just paid yesterday. We were living on rent in Chhatarpur before,” said Sheetal, an employee at a private company.

Sheetal also said the builders were from Mehrauli and that they had heard of the houses in the building by word of mouth.

In a release, the DDA said a demolition order was pasted on December 12, 2022, asking to remove unauthorised construction from the land in 10 days. The DDA has said the land involved in the demolition is “government/ DDA” land of Ladha Sarai village and is part of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, housing around 55 protected monuments. The drive to clear “encroachments” began on February 10 and “all stakeholders, including GNCTD, have been on board in the run up to this long pending, Court-mandated exercise”, the DDA said in the release.

“A demarcation exercise, to identify extent of unauthorised and illegal encroachment/construction, for the purpose of removing them, had been carried out as per direction of the Hon’ble High Court by the Revenue Department, representatives, in the presence of DDA and Waqf Board representatives in December 2021,” it said.
“The Hon’ble High Court of Delhi has, on many occasions, directed the government authorities to secure, protect and preserve the area falling under Mehrauli Archaeological Park by removing illegal encroachment,” the DDA said. The land is being reclaimed for its “rightful use by all citizens as a park”, it added.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said: “Mehrauli has been witnessing a demolition drive based on Delhi government’s Revenue Department records and surprisingly, when dozens of houses were demolished today, we find Revenue Minister Gahlot coming out to say that there are fallacies in the old survey of his department and we are ordering a new survey.” Pointing to the “callousness” of the government in giving the DDA “a wrong survey report”, Kapoor said authorities should “consider putting the demolition drive in abeyance pending proper survey”.