MLA promises relocation of Jamia encroachers for `their benefit’

Says pavement-dweller Niaz Ahmed, “I came from Bihar two months ago. We have been living here since. I have not yet managed to find work. I sit here all day. There is nothing else that I can do.”

MCD-owned Tinkonia Park, which leads to the faculties of law and education, is the living area of people with work — ragpickers — and their cattle, hens and pigs. And the drains characteristically overflow. Says assistant registrar (JMI) Mohd Moin-ud-din, “There is no space left for vehicles to pass through the street. And the sanitation-level of the area has hit rock bottom. I feel insecure walking back in the evenings. There is nothing that the authorities can do. Any action one takes here assumes political colour.”

Area MLA Parvesh Hashmi promises: “I’ll be getting the encroachments removed very soon. But I won’t be taking this measure to beautify the university. I will do it for the safety of the people who are living there. Vehicles often run into the sleeping pavement dwellers. I plan to rehabilitate them elsewhere in due course of time.” Even as the buck makes a slow round all the authorities concerned, students are complaining. Shaheen Sultana, JMI student: “We feel unsafe passing through the area. Eve-teasing is rampant. We usually go home in groups. It is safer going back on a cycle-rickshaw than walking back. Why can’t the authorities do something to make the campus safe?”

Students allege that the police is hand-in-glove with the encroachers. Says Azra, JMI student,“Most of the encroachers pay a certain amount of money to the police. No one wants to rehabilitate them.” The police deny the allegation vehemently and in turn hold the encroachers responsible for the increasing number of petty thefts, chain snatchings and fights in the area.