HYDERABAD: IT was only a rickety tin shed, but till Monday, 35-year-old B Maheshwari had a roof over her head. As a single mother of three children, she fought a lone battle to keep her children and their aspirations alive.
But on Tuesday morning, she was among 400 people who were rendered homeless within minutes, not by any flash flood or earthquake but due to government action. “At around 3 am, we were waking up by loud sounds. A large contingent of police swooped into our homes,” recalls Maheshwari.
It was, supposedly, a crackdown against illegal structures by the revenue department and Cyberabad police. Four earthmovers were brought in and nearly 80 of about 500 sheds spread over a 2-acre piece of land in Keshavanagar in Gachibowli, in the middle of the swanky IT hub, was razed to the ground at 3 am in the morning.
“They came when were were sleeping. As the officials went about with demolitions, destroying everything that we have, police handled those of us who were protesting,” says Maheshwari.
The aggrieved residents who had lost everything protested against the police. Within minutes it escalated and protestors started pelting stones at officials, following which police resorted to lathi charge. Three policemen suffered minor injuries in the clash and seven persons were arrested for rioting, and preventing government officials from performing their duties.
Residents, who have been living in the very same place for the last 30 years, say nothing about their eviction was legal. “We were not issued any notice, we were not informed in advance, and we have not been promised any alternate accommodation. The only option we have now is to stay in the open,” another resident said. “What gives authorities to snatch away everything we have earned and built in our lifetime? All our belongings and our money, however little, was inside the house. All of that is lost under the debris, just like our lives,” fumes Maheshwari, who lost her husband six years ago. “Every year we are paying the house tax to the revenue department. We also have legal water connections. Then, how can they demolish our homes?”
M Radha Krishna says all his hard work, memories and earnings of 30 years have been buried under a pile of rubble in a single stroke. He believes they were evicted so that the land could be repurposed to accommodate corporate companies. “Some people think that people like us do not belong in this IT hub anymore, though we were the original residents of this place,” he says.
Deputy collector of Rangareddy, S Tirupathi Rao, claims the land in question was allocated for the construction of 2BHK houses about a year ago. “At that time, only 16 families were living there and we had issued notices to them and asked them to vacate the 37/2 survey land. Since they have not vacated, we have started the special drive,” he said and assured that temporary shelters would be provided.