Bharati Mirchandani

THE razing of houses continues along the sewage drain that extends from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to the new sports facilities behind INA market. In the past 35-40 years these families have dwelt here in their homes which have been razed twice before.

This is the third time and they have learnt to cope as their livelihoods are here and they hoped, as promised during the last election, that all the dwellers here would get pukka houses nearby. Their main incentive, apart from their existing place of work nearby, that made them determined to continue to stay in the rubble was the local MLA’s assurance. He has been hiding from them since the houses were razed.

Into the third day now, they have reconstructed makeshift homes which they dismantle each morning. The police trouble them all day. At night poles and plastic sheets are reconstructed again in this shanty place.

Some have shifted to the pavements across the road where a few homes that already existed were not touched. Others have set up huts in a nearby park.

Two small temples have been left standing. The larger temple is already expanding its footprint; new barbed wire demarcates extra area for expansion. "We have to do this. Look how small is my baby? Can he live in the open in this cold?" A mother said. Night temperatures touch 11. She said the temple belongs to her father in law. The tempos were not touched by the bulldozers.

The grand dog belongs to 'someone very big in the supreme court' who owns a cargo/tempo service and a large plot within this area of demolished huts is used for parking his vehicles.
The toilet with a cemented WC has been built over a sewage pipe. 'If they bulldoze that, sewage will explode over them,' i was told.

This is national capital and there is need to beautify the city by demolishing houses of the poor. Social justice for am admi indeed.

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