Facing a human rights crisis, say residents of Kant Enclave

Appeal to Haryana CM Khattar to step in to save their homes

Former Justice A.M. Ahmadi’s house at Kant Enclave in Faridabad.

Residents of Kant Enclave here on Saturday said that they faced a human rights crisis of enormous magnitude and appealed to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to step in to save their homes.

The Supreme Court had on September 11 ordered the demolition of the houses built illegally in Kant Enclave in the protected forests of the Aravallis, noting that ecological damage done by colonisers to the ancient hills was irreversible.

No mention of forest

Holding a press conference, the residents said that Kant Enclave was given permission in 1984 following which they bought the plots and the “Jamabandhis” mentioned “Gair Mumkin Pahar” and there was no mention of forest. They added that the area was incorporated in the Faridabad Master Plan in 1991, which was approved by a Legislative Act of the Haryana State Assembly and the builder signed an agreement with Haryana government in March, 1992, before proceeding with the project. They claimed that till date, the Faridabad Master Plan had not been modified to show this area as a forest.

Many of the residents were elderly and middle-class people living on their pensions, they argued, adding that some had even taken loans to build the homes, which are about to be brought down. Once the homes were brought down, the compensation fixed by the court would be foreclosed by the financial institutions as their collateral security would cease to exist, they said. “In effect, due to gross misgovernance by the Haryana government, the residents of Kant Enclave face the situation of being rendered homeless, roofless and in their old age, will be literally brought on the road,” said Sanjay Basu, one of the residents.

First such case

They said that a historical landmark being created with this action was that, this would be the country’s first authorised colony with sanctioned homes, which was being made unauthorised and destroyed.

It would be for the first time in the annals of history of this nation where a Master Plan, registry of land and sanction of a competent authority would be made null and void, they said, adding that after this, the citizens of this nation would never again feel secured that the homes that they had bought despite the same being sanctioned as per master plan, with a valid registry and sanctioned building plans were legal.