A day before the houses at Kathputli Colony were razed to the ground, power and water supply was disconnected. It was like a pre-planned move about which everyone knew, but the residents.
Sitting on the rubble of what is left of his house, 38-year-old Vicky, a resident of the colony, narrates the ordeal of October 30, when they woke up to the sound of police sirens and bulldozers outside the colony entrance.
‘Police did not care’
Within minutes, large excavators started pulling down houses, not caring if the occupants were still inside. “The police officers dragged us out of our houses beating us through the way. They did not care if it was a woman, a child or a senior citizen on the other end. It seemed like their motive was to just pull down the houses, with or without us,” Vicky said.
Over 4,000 residents living in around 500 houses in the Kathputli Colony are now homeless. On Thursday, two days after the demolition drive by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Delhi Police, residents were seen picking up pieces of their lives — some sitting on roadsides with their luggage not knowing where to go, and some trying to save household items from beneath the rubble.
Mohsina, a dancer, said that since the demolition people from the neighbouring Pandav Nagar have been walking in and out of the colony stealing items from the demolished houses.
Items being stolen
“It is like throwing acid on someone who is already dead. We faced such a major tragedy. Our houses were torn down and people are looting us even now,” she said.
Television sets, mattresses and even utensils were stolen when the residents were running to save their lives.
“Should we have saved ourselves and our children or ran after our belongings,” asked Jai Bhatt, another resident.
Some also alleged that the police have been particularly rough with the colony residents because the a real estate developer has been hiring outsiders to throw stones at them posing as residents of the Kathputli Colony during confrontations in the past.
“We have been ordered in residents’ meetings that nothing should go wrong from our end, and we make sure that none of us resorts to violence,” said Jai.
‘No help offered’
The DDA has made provisions for 2,800 temporary houses in a camp in Anand Parbat, and another 492 lodgings in north-west Delhi’s Narela, five and 30 km away, respectively. But apart from this, the residents claimed that no help has been offered.
Dilip Bhatt, the pradhan of the community, said that they have knocked every door so that the residents do not have to relocate from their present location.
