The Hindu : New Delhi News : Slums demolished to pave way for parking lot

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Monday, Jan 19, 2009
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New Delhi

Slums demolished to pave way for parking lot

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A slum cluster that came up alongside a drain behind Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here about 10 years ago, was removed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi recently. Of the jhuggi dwellers evicted, over 50 were differently-abled people suffering from a high degree of disability. They have been living there since 1998-99.

According to MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur, the drain will be covered and the area beautified to make way for a parking lot in view of the Commonwealth Games in the Capital in 2010.

Though the MCD claims that none of these slum dwellers were covered under the government’s re-location scheme, social activist Alaka Madhok, who has been working with these disabled people for a long time, said they had been promised an alternative site.

“Three months ago, the Government gave them electricity and they have been paying regular bills. If you assure someone to that extent, you don’t throw them out all of a sudden. There are little children, elderly people and over 50 disabled persons out in the open in this cold weather ever since their slums were demolished,” said Ms. Madhok adding that these disabled persons were living in Rajiv Gandhi camps before settling down behind the stadium.

“The then OSD to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had issued a letter to the SHO of Lodhi Colony in March 1999 stating that the process of their resettlement would take time and until the relocation was finally settled, these people should not be forcibly evicted from there,” she pointed out.

Later, land in Sriniwaspuri was allotted by the Urban Development Ministry for relocation of these disabled persons. Maneka Gandhi, the then Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, wrote to the then Additional Commissioner (Slums) of the MCD, to expedite movement of the disabled community to their new location. However, nothing has been done till date.

“Despite repeated assurances, both verbally and in writing, by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, these disabled poor were thrown out of the jhuggis. The question is not just about this particular slum. The fact is that if these people had encroached on government’s land, why did the authorities not prevent them from settling down when they first came in. Why evacuate them now?” asked Ms. Madhok, who has also sought an appointment with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to discuss the plight of the disabled people.

However, the MCD spokesperson said these slum dwellers were served a notice to vacate the land “long time ago”. “The issue of these slum dwellers was examined at the highest level in the MCD. None of these squatters are covered under the relocation policy. They have been encroaching public land.”

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