In Hapur, eviction notice to Dalits in PMAY homes: ‘You were told to vacate, but haven’t… standing on your ego’

The notice, dated April 8, states that the land belongs to the government and the houses had been built on what used to be a pond. It reads: “You have illegally occupied the land of the Nagar Palika and built a house on it and you do not want to remove it and therefore, it is important to initiate legal proceedings against you. Within 15 days of receiving this notice, remove your occupancy on the land and submit the land to Nagar Palika or else you will be responsible for the case against you.”

Local residents say the notices have come as a shock.

Kamla with her PMAY (U) certificate. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

Gangaram’s neighbour, Prakash (70), points to a key paragraph in the notice issued by an advocate on behalf of the Garhmukteshwar Municipal Council’s Executive Officer Mukta Singh. It reads, “Municipal officials have told you orally several times to vacate the land but you refuse to vacate the land without following statutory provisions. And in your ego (‘apni hekdi ke bal par’), you say the said land has been given to us in the land records and that the government has given us the records. On the said land, there exists no records of any residential plots, and in any case, if the land records have been created in the name of anyone, it has been cancelled.”

When contacted, the Hapur district administration said it has received several complaints and met the residents. “We are looking into this matter. It was brought to our notice on Tuesday. If the claims of the people are correct, we will investigate. We do not check the authenticity of land deeds under PMAY, we only check if the person is a rightful owner according to the deed. We need to check the claims,” Prerna Sharma, District Magistrate, said.

Asked about the language used in the notice issued on her behalf, Executive Officer Mukta Singh declined to comment.

A day after receiving the notice, Gangaram and several others from the colony went to meet the Executive Officer. “ “I have only studied till Class 4, and can only read my name. The others in the colony explained to me that they want me to vacate my home… The officials told us that our colony is illegal. They told us to file a petition in court. We are poor, we can only complain,” Gangaram said.

“I got the money under PMAY in three installments after the first lockdown. In the first installment, I got Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 each in the next two installments. I also used Rs 1.5 lakh that I had saved over the years to complete the construction,” he said.

According to the residents of Indra Nagar, they moved to the locality after being relocated from Chupla in Garhmukteshwar which, at the time, was part of Ghaziabad district. The residents have still preserved a copy of the notice issued by the then local administration on July 18, 1986, asking them to relocate. “For the purpose of rehabilitation, considering the collective application letter, we have decided that 100 gaj of land be given to you so that the problem of rehabilitation is solved. You will not have the right to sell and transfer the land. The land will be used by you and your family members for residential purposes,” it states.

“Yes, there was a dried pond here when we got the land. But officials from the Nagar Palika themselves filled it and helped us settle here,” said Gangaram’s neighbour Prakash, standing outside her home with her 38-year-old son Kuldeep Singh.

Among those from the colony who went to meet the Executive Officer last week was Kamla, who stays with her 25-year-old son in a one-room house with a kitchen under the stairs leading to the roof. “My husband died 14 years ago. I got Rs 2.5 lakh to build the house and used Rs 80,000 more that I saved from working in the fields or selling vegetables in the market,” she says.

According to Kamla, she waited outside the municipality office. “Only a few of us were allowed to go inside. They (officials) told us that they had done what they had to, and now it was up to us to do what we can… We cannot sleep, we have used all the money we had saved to build our homes. Where will we go now,” she said.