Several left homeless as demolition drives intensified for G20 events in Delhi, say activists

Activists in Delhi on Tuesday said that evictions and demolitions have been escalated in the capital and other cities hosting G20related events rendering several people homelessAccording to PTI report at a public hearing here on Monday civil society and community members shared accounts of the evictions and antiencroachment drives The hearing was organised by Concerned Citizens a collective of organisations from varied fieldsDelhi buckles up to host eight G20 events including the meeting of heads of governments and states in September more people have started getting eviction notices amid a series of antiencroachment drives by different authorities said the activistsIndia got the G20 presidency in November and people in Delhi suddenly started getting notices PTI quoted Pruthviraj from Land Conflict Watch as saying He said there are patterns in the recent demolitions with the poorer neighbourhoods being more vulnerableIn Mehrauli 700 eviction notices were served while 25 houses were demolished However in Tughlakabad around 1500 notices were served and around 3000 houses were demolished as the residents were relatively more vulnerable Pruthviraj told PTI He alleged that the houses or apartments of the relatively more affluent were spared in both placesPuja who now lives under a flyover after being evicted from Bela Estate in the Yamuna floodplains said they were given only three hours to pack their belongings before their houses were broken It was next to impossible Many students missed their board exams due to the eviction drive on April 29 Within a month bulldozers were unleashed on us thrice Puja quoted by PTI as saying They first broke the hand pumps to make us leave immediately Kids had to miss their exams to save their houses she addedThe area around the 14thcentury Tughlakabad Fort also bore the brunt of the recent demolition drive Delhi has become a war zone If you go to Tuglakabad it would feel like the area has been bombarded CPIML activist Sucheta De told PTIAbdul Shakeel from Basti Suraksha said the Tughlakabad eviction was brutal and that he had not seen anything of this magnitude On the day of demolition the police surrounded the basti jammers were installed so that no one could share videos the phones of activists were snatched the nearby hotels and shops were shut and the entire basti was razed in two days Shakeel saidAlso readCPJ calls on Indian govt to end brutal crackdown on Kashmiri journalistsFormer Deputy Mayor of Shimla Tikender Singh Panwar said housing should be included as a fundamental right in the Constitution Youre beautifying the city and criminalising the poor It is important to have housing as a fundamental right The cities are being built with technocentric and capitalintensive technology leaving the working class out There is no space for the poor Panwar said at the public hearingLawyer and activist Anand Yagnik called the evictions extraconstitutional It appears that the G20 event has become an extraconstitutional event that does not abide by the rule of law Such temporary suspension of constitution owing to G20 overturning high court or Supreme Court orders is unthinkable said YagnikHuman rights activist and former IAS officer Harsh Mander said welcoming delegates from all over the world by expelling the citys poor depicted a distorted meaning of beauty or developmentPamela Philipose a Jury member of the hearing said the aggravated use of bulldozers in these demolitions is a symbol of brutality and cruelty of the stateIt is sad to hear how hawkers are seen as encroachers basti dwellers are seen as illegal residents and the homeless are considered drug addicts she addedThe national capital has witnessed several antiencroachment drives in recent yearsAccording to a report by Housing and Land Rights Network HLRN in 2021 government authorities at both the central and state levels demolished over 36480 homes thereby evicting over 207100 207 lakh people from their homes across urban and rural IndiaThe state authorities across the country had demolished over 25800 homes from January to July 2022 affecting at least 124450 people the report addedWith inputs from PTI