Mehrauli homes razed, their owners seek refuge with kin

The families claim it has land registry documents, an electricity meter, and other identity documents issued at the address but none that could convince the DDA to hold back its bulldozers

Residents of Ward number 8 in Mehrauli where at least several houses were demolished by DDA in a drive to remove alleged encroachments that had come up close to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park are coping up in different ways, hoping to reclaim their property for which they spent their hard-earned savings and took loans.

While some of the residents in the Aam Bagh area are living in the open near the demolished remains of their houses, some have either moved in with their relatives or rented flats in the same locality. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

While some of the residents in the Aam Bagh area are living in the open near the demolished remains of their houses, some have either moved in with their relatives or rented flats in the same locality.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) initiated a demolition drive in Mehrauli last Thursday. The land-owning agency said that the aim of the drive was to remove encroachment from the DDA land of Ladha Sarai Village falling in Mehrauli Archaeological Park and “reclaim encroached government land for its rightful use by all citizens as a park”. LG VK Saxena directed the DDA to stop the drive till further instructions on Tuesday.

Raju Khertala bought a one BHK flat for ₹17 lakh in Orchid Apartment in 2019 in ward no. 8 that was demolished on Saturday. He and his family members have now moved to a one-room rented accommodation. The family suffered a two-fold setback since Khertala’s daughter Kavita was going to get married next week, and all ceremonies leading up to the wedding have been cancelled.

The family claims it has land registry documents, an electricity meter, and other identity documents issued at the address but none that could convince the DDA to hold back its bulldozers.

“The wedding functions that were scheduled to take place earlier have been cancelled since we no longer have a house of our own. All bookings have been cancelled and the money that we invested went down the drain. Now, the wedding will take place in another city where my in-laws live. We will be able to organise only the main wedding function,” said a dejected Kavita. She said while they have moved in a rented flat, most of the household items have been kept at houses of different relatives.

“We have taken a small room on rent since staying in the open is not an option. A few clothes and utensils are with us while other belongings are lying in the parking lot of my sister’s house. Everything is in disarray and on most days, we buy food from outside or our relatives deliver meals,” said Kavita.

She added that family members were traumatised by the incident. “I had so many dreams for my wedding. All arrangements were in place and we were eagerly waiting for the festivities to begin. But now, our house has been demolished and our dreams were shattered in a matter of minutes,” said Kavita.

Munesh, who goes by his first name, owned a flat on the ground floor of the same apartment. Since the demolition, he has moved to a rented accommodation in Mehrauli. Munesh said that landlords were profiting from the misery of people whose houses had been demolished and charging higher-than-usual rent.

“I purchased the flat one year ago for roughly ₹10 lakh with my savings. We checked the documents before buying the flat. The land was registered and nothing seemed amiss. The builder has disappeared while we have been compelled to live on rent once again,” said Munesh, who works with a private firm.

A few steps ahead from Orchid Apartments, DDA razed 5-6 houses in the vicinity of a heritage jharna on Friday. Sahira Bano’s house was among them. Since the demolition, Sahira, her husband, and their young daughters are living under the open sky with no shelter of any kind. On Monday when HT visited the area, Sahira and her three daughters were perched on a small bed, positioned precariously next to a tree and a swamp ridden with sewage. Other belongings and clothes lay scattered around the bed which is among the few belongings that survived the demolition. In the absence of an earning-member, the family has no recourse left. Sahira’s husband doesn’t work due to health problems.

“We have been staying here since our house was razed. Except this bed, we don’t have much left now. People who live in the adjacent building keep throwing trash on us. Sometimes they even spit on us. They don’t realise that displaced people are living here,” said Sahira, who used to teach Quran to neighbourhood children earlier, but no longer does the job on account of ill health. She said that while the family had the biggest house in the area with 6 rooms earlier the demolition had set back the family by generations.

“It took us a lifetime to build a house for ourselves bit by bit. We were informed ten minute before the demolition and our house was consigned to dust,” said Sahira, 60, who grew up in Mehrauli. She added that her ancestors had lived in Mehrauli for decades and much before the DDA came up with the demarcation exercise.

Besides ward 8, the DDA also razed 12-15 houses in ward 1 adjacent to a gurdwara and a mosque. Imran Khan, whose house was razed, said that while the demolition had been stopped by the LG, families like his had nowhere to go. Khan’s family of seven members is also staying in the open in a vacant plot opposite his now-demolished how. Khan, who drives an autorickshaw on rent, said that renting an accommodation was not an option. With his family, that includes a six-month-old infant and a 60-year-old mother, Khan is in despair. “I have been looking for a temporary accommodation but the rent is exorbitant. I don’t earn a lot and there has been hardly any income for the past one month since I have been running to courts and skipping work,” said Khan.