Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) As many as 150 huts in a slum area were Thursday bulldozed for construction of a flyover near the Nizamuddin railway station in the capital, police said.
The drive was carried out on the directions of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), a police official added.

A police team supervised the demolition operation near the Nizamuddin railway station in southeast Delhi.

“Residents were issued notice in advance to vacate the area and many huts were unoccupied. There was no resistance from the people,” a police officer said.

The MCD, however, said that the demolition was not done on their orders but by land development agencies.

“This demolition is being done for the Barapullah Nallah bridge — this is a Commonwealth Games project that will connect the Games village to venues in central Delhi. There was some encroachment from the slum so it had to be removed. However, we did not order it - it was Delhi Development Authority and Public Works Department that did the demolition,” Deputy Municipal Commissioner Kishan Kumar told IANS.

However, according to a senior MCD official, the MCD had provided the men and machinery to raze the hutments. “For the bridge, that unauthorised slum which is on the government’s railway land was causing problem. So it was bulldozed,” he said.

Policemen at the site said that all the slum dwellers were yet to be allocated other land.

The slum residents are, meanwhile, distressed about where they will go now.

“The slum has been here for years, we have lived here for decades. Half of the people of the slum haven’t been sanctioned space in the allotted land on the outskirts of Delhi. Even if we go there… our work is here. How will we deal with all the expenses,” said Rajni, 45, a slum-dweller.