A large number of people, including women and children, who had been evicted from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quarters in Ejipura here more than two months ago, continue to languish on the pavements skirting the 15 acres and 22 guntas of land, where their homes once stood.
Now, the home of V. Sunil Kumar, a painter in his late 30s, consists of just a single mattress, enough for one man to sleep, with a discarded flex banner for a roof. Also, it is right below a transformer on the pavement near the erstwhile EWS quarters. He had no option but to send his wife and two children to his wife’s native place in Andhra Pradesh.
“I could not allow my wife and children to stay on the street with me. So, I sent them back to their place,” he told The Hindu . Children of many evicted families, who share the pavements in the area, have stopped going to school ever since the eviction. They have also missed their exams. “With so much of uncertainty, all our routines have been affected,” said Jabeen P., 22, pointing to children who were having food supplied by an NGO.
She herself has stopped going to work in the canteen in a college in nearby Koramangala ever since her dwelling was demolished and belongings thrown on the streets.
The elderly among the evicted appear to be the worst affected. Breaking down on seeing this reporter approach him, Francis Xavier, 61, said that he had lost all hopes of getting a roof over him. He survives on the food provided by the NGO to these displaced families.
On Sunday morning, word was sent around among them that the area MLA would be meeting them to provide them relief. Some of them trooped into the shaadi mahal nearby only to hear N.A. Haris, Shantinagar MLA, reiterating that they would be provided houses in Sulikunte in Sarjapur, where about 900 houses are being built for them under the Rajiv Awas Yojana.
