Salman, 31, travelled more than 17 km from Bhajanpura in northeast Delhi to Sunder Nagar near Mathura Road on Friday, spent the night in the rubble of his now-demolished home and headed out to cast his vote on Saturday morning.
At the polling booth at Delhi Public School (DPS) Mathura Road, Salman and several other former local residents had travelled a long way to cast their vote in the Lok Sabha elections.
Salman, a driver by profession, said the DPS Mathura Road polling station was the nearest to his previous home, which was among the nearly 300 buildings demolished by the Department of Land Development of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on November 21 last year as part of an “anti-squatter drive”.
“We lived here for a few days… After the demolition, we stayed here for a few days and then shifted to a rented house in Bhajanpura. We still have family in the area,” Salman said.
“We hope that another government will help us rebuild,” said Muhammad Moinuddin, a 23-year-old university student who lived with his parents in the now-demolished house until a month ago, as the rubble has yet to be cleared from the site.
The demolition followed an order of the Delhi High Court, which had ruled that the slum area did not come into existence before January 1, 2006 and is therefore not protected by existing rules. The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were ordered to provide machinery required for the demolition. The demolition was part of similar demolition drives across Delhi in areas including Trilokpuri, Khajri Khas, Narela, Aya Nagar, Green Park and Sadar Bazaar.
Moinuddin, who came from his new home in Sarai Kale Khan to DPS Mathura Road to vote on Saturday, said he and his family had shifted to a rented house as the heat had become unbearable and they could no longer live outdoors. “The BJP government at the Centre has made jhuggi-dwellers into a vote-base but has actually done nothing for us. Houses have been destroyed in many parts of Delhi but no one has received any relief yet,” Moinuddin added.
“We had to come and vote… this is a vote for change,” said Farida Begum, 38, whose husband is an e-rickshaw driver, and the couple have three children.
Like other children who lived in the area before the demolition, Farida's son is a student in Class 11 at DPS on Mathura Road. They had joined the school under the EWS (economically weaker section) category.
“…We hope that with a change in government, there will be some change. We had our own house here. Now it has been demolished and we are living on rent,” Farida added.
Salman said the area feels like home and Saturday's visit to DPS Mathura Road was one of many visits by former residents to the area over the past few months. “We broke our fast here together (during Ramadan this year). Sometimes we come and sit here in the evening… We don't want to give up our land,” said Salman, who visited Sundernagar on Friday with his wife, son and brother's families. The family is due to return to Bhajanpura on Saturday evening, he added.
Some of the family's belongings, like those of many others, remain at the demolition site. Sundernagar is in the east Delhi parliamentary constituency from which AAP's Kuldeep Kumar and BJP's Harsh Malhotra are running in this year's Lok Sabha elections.
© Indian Express Ltd.
First uploaded on: May 26, 2024 07:29 IST
