Barely a few metres away from the glitzy new coffee shops and boutique parlours of Koramangala, 80-feet Road curves to present a row of tarpaulin-covered squalid houses on the footpath. Overlooking their houses – some families live in large concrete pipes that are kept by the road – is a high barricade of a large construction site.
“What was once our lives, our houses, our parents’ houses are now behind these barricades; while we helplessly peep into it every day and wait,” said Jacqueline, a domestic help who now resides with her family of six in a tarpaulin hut.
While nearly 80 families live along the footpath of the area they were evicted from, the rest have scattered into small rented houses in the city. “Some families were moved to slum board quarters in Kaigondanahalli. But, even they have come to the streets as it is closer to the houses they work in,” said M.R. Prabhakar, from the Forum against EWS Land Grab.
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It has been two years since nearly 1,512 families comprising nearly 5,000 people were evicted from the dwellings at EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) Colony at Ejipura. In a four-day drive starting on January 18, 2013, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) razed their houses to enable the “redevelopment” project by Maverick Holdings.
The project had a timeframe of two years to construct apartments for the original allottees of the EWS settlement as well as construction of houses for the tenants – who form the bulk of the displaced – at Sulikunte, nearly 19km away. On the second anniversary of the eviction, both the assurances are yet to become a reality.
And, for many tenants, Sulikunte –near Sarjapura – remains an unviable option. The displacement to the fringes of the city violates the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) mission guidelines that “urban poor [should be] provided housing near their place of occupation”.
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“Many of us work as domestic help in Koramangala. We will lose our jobs and our children cannot go to school if we have to travel 1.5 hours…I see no other way than to continue to live on the footpath,” said Manjula, who lives with her family on a footpath in Ejipura.
Blaming the delays on “several cases in the courts”, the last of which was dismissed in September, Uday Garudachar, Managing Director, Maverick Holdings, said the “two-year timeframe” starts from March, 2015 when the foundation for the buildings will be laid.