Sarojini Nagar slum dwellers panic-stricken despite stay on demolition

‘Have been living here since many decades, where will we go now’ wonder slum dwellers

NEW DELHI:

The nightmare of her house being razed to the ground has kept 32-year-old widow Geeta Lal awake for several days now. 

“We have been living here for the past 12 years. If our house is demolished, my family won’t have a roof over its head. We’ll have to live on the road. How can you suddenly throw us away without giving us a place to live?” she said. 

Her family - two school-going children and her father-in-law - is one among the 200 families living in Sarojini Nagar’s slums that were supposed to be demolished by the Centre in an anti-encroachment drive early last month. 

In response to a petition filed by a few residents of the slum, including a class X student, the Supreme Court on April 25 stayed the demolition drive and on May 2 extended the stay till the third week of July. While putting the eviction drive on hold, the court had asked the Centre to “act humanely” as “expected of a model government”, till the residents’ plea for rehabilitation is decided.

The plea in the Apex Court challenged an earlier order by the Delhi High Court, which had refused to interfere with the demolition drive.

Despite the stay, panic has gripped the slum dwellers. The locals told The Hindu that while the stay order had renewed their hopes, they feared that the authorities could, without any notice, bulldoze their houses and render them homeless.