The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Haryana government and the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to a field report that said people displaced by the Khori Gaon demolition are living in tin sheds with mud floor with hardly any privacy.
The report prepared by a researcher, Manju Menon, and advocate Srishti Agnihotri was brought to the attention of a Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar by advocate Sanjay Parikh.
The senior lawyer urged the court to form a committee headed by a retired High Court judge to monitor the actual state of facilities for shelter and food provided to the displaced residents. The report submitted that the facilities in the temporary shelter provided at the Radha Swami Satsang community centre were “woefully inadequate”.
“The temporary shelter facility is a shed which is completely exposed to the elements, with a mud floor, and no partition for privacy for women and lactating mothers. It further has no space for families to carry and store their belongings, which were left in the open after their homes were demolished. These are belongings that the petitioners and their families have bought after years of saving every Rupee,” Mr. Parikh quoted from the ground report.
He said the people should be provided with basic requirements. Protection from the elements and privacy for women. Mr. Parikh said the basic needs of these people have been “outright ignored”.
The deplorable conditions raise the spectre of diseases. Hundreds of children from these families face the risk of discontinuation of their education.
The court scheduled the next hearing on September 6.
