Over 1,250 hutments razed,8 held

Five JCB bulldozers were used for the demolition drive which was supervised by 75 personnel. Thirty-eight women were arrested as they protested against the demolition,said Ateeq Ahmed a local resident. “The women were protesting and hampering government work therefore they had to be arrested,” said Sawarkar.

“The land was cleared in 2005 but later the slumdwellers had started living here,” he added.

“In March this year,the administration sent an evacuation letter to the slumdwellers and after they had protested,we asked for their residence proofs,” Sawarkar said.

None of them was found eligible after we checked their documents as none of them have been here before 1995,we gave demolition orders,he added.

The notice of demolition was served on Wednesday morning and the slumdwellers were given 24 hours to vacate,said the officials. However,according to locals,the notice was served late on Wednesday afternoon and they did not get even 24 hours to vacate.

Last month,slumdwellers had submitted a proposal to the Centre and state for implementation of Rajiv Awaas Yojana in their slum,said Simpreet Singh of Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan. If these illegalities were there,then they should have been given the notice at that time,he added.

According to the administration,the locals set some huts on fire to stop the demolition,but the locals alleged that it was the civic body which set the fire as they wanted to expedite demolition process.

The slums house largely workers from unorganized sector and had a lot of training centres for tailoring,embroidery and computer classes.