Ghaziabad: Evicted from their shanties, 1,200 families brave winter chill in the open

In Meerut, an anti-encroachment drive left a ragpicker couple homeless, leading to Shabnam giving birth under the open sky amid harsh winter conditions.

Saleem and Shabnam, a ragpicker couple, were expecting a child soon, but that did not deter the defence estates department teams from demolishing their illegal tenement in Vijay Nagar during peak winter. Left homeless since the past two days, Shabnam, late Tuesday night, gave birth to a girl under the open sky while fighting to ward off the bitter cold.

Hundreds of shanties have been razed in an anti-encroachment drive going on for past three days in Vijay Nagar. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

An anti-encroachment drive is currently being carried out by the officials from the Raksha Sampada department at Meerut, and over 1,200 families have been removed from 161 acres of defence land, which was heavily encroached upon for decades.

Deputy commissioner of police Rajesh Kumar said the anti-encroachment drive has been taken up by officials from the Raksha Sampada department at Meerut.

“This department manages the defence estates and they are taking up the anti-encroachment drive in Vijay Nagar to free up military land. The police have been roped in to ensure law and order. We estimate that about 1,200-1,300 shanties etc, were taken down,” he said.

The officials said the land is meant for the army’s rifle range, and illegal houses and shanties had mushroomed on it.

Saleem, 48, who hails from Shamli in western Uttar Pradesh, had set up a shanty on the land illegally.

“We have been living there for the past 15 years. I pleaded with officials to spare my shanty as my wife was expecting a child any day now. But no one listened. Our shanty was demolished on Monday, and we had nowhere to go. We kept lying under the sky in the open, and my 35-year-old wife gave birth to our third child on Tuesday night,” Saleem said.

He said he has constructed a temporary tent of blankets and canvas sheets to protect the newborn and Shabnam.

“The officials told us to remove the rubble and take away the remaining items. Else, they will be seized and taken away in a day or two,” Saleem said.

Not far away is the shattered shanty of Ajeeb Khan, who hails from Sohna in Haryana. Rehnuma, his seven-year-old daughter, passed away late Tuesday night.

“She was shivering in the bitter cold ever since our dwelling was demolished like hundred others on Monday. She passed away, and I have no clue where to take her. I somehow arranged for her burial, but no one is listening to our miseries. My other three children are still living in the open at the spot, as we hardly have the means to arrange for any rented house,” Khan said.

Another squatter, Munavvar, aged about 45 years, said the demolition was expedited and took them by surprise.

“The authorities should have spared us for another month so that our children and aged family members could survive peak winter. Hundreds of sqautters are staying put next to their demolished houses. Our blankets, bedrolls, and clothes are wet in the dense fog, and we are praying that our children do not contract some illness. We are lighting fires using the wooden leftovers of our demolished shanties to keep ourselves warm,” Munavvar said.

Often labelled as “Rohingyas” and “Bangladeshis,” the hundreds of squatters on the military land are an eyesore to residents in nearby colonies who want them evicted as they blame the tenement dwellers for an escalation in crimes in the area.

Ghaziabad’s Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sanjeev Sharma said that he, along with Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg, held a meeting with defence minister Rajnath Singh and conveyed the issues and concerns raised by locals.

“It was after this that the authorities took up the anti-encroachment drive, and the land is being freed up. We met the defence minister in December. There were a lot of crimes and even drug use was rampant there. The land was encroached upon for the past several decades. Some of these people were also offered land in the past in Sudamapuri, but they did not stay there,” Sharma said.

He said that there were proper notices served and officials were asking encroachers to remove their belongings since the past one month.

“It is not that the demolition was carried out one fine day. Now, residents of nearby localities are heaving a sigh of relief after the anti-encroachment drive. We have asked the authorities concerned to protect the land so that no encroachment takes place in the future,” Sharma said.

VK Gupta, subdivisional officer from the Raksha Sampada office, Meerut division, said that the defence land measures about 161.511 acres.

“To displace occupants and remove illegal encroachments, the estate officer had given a notice for hearing in 2014. The hearing got completed in 2016, and they were asked to demolish encroachments. After 2016, we were not able to remove encroachments due to several reasons. Public announcement (Munadi) was also taken up for six days before the start of the drive. We are trying to see if we can take up plantation or get a boundary wall constructed to ensure that no encroachment occurs in the future,” Gupta said.