BENGALURU: Around 250 families, including Fakirs, Dalits and Christians say they are welcoming the New Year from the rubble, looking up at the sky and hoping to find shelter soon. Syed Khader Basha, leader of the Fakir community, said the residents are coordinating with Revenue and Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials who are verifying their documents, and once the process is through, the dwellers will be given homes under government schemes.
Contrary to claims by some BJP leaders that illegal Bangladeshis are residing in the Kogilu slum, officials have found that migrants from Anantapur, Hindupur and surroundings in Andhra Pradesh, and Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, have settled along with the ‘Dervesh’ sect of Sufis. The dervesh go around singing praises of God and Sufi mystic and preacher Shaikh Abdul Quadir Jilani, whose resting place is in Baghdad.
“There are people who are socially and economically backward. The colony also houses Pinjar and Nadaf, who are OBCs among Muslims. After demolition and eviction two weeks ago, all these communities are sleeping in makeshift tents and the government school compound, and some are resting on cots in the rubble.
When the whole world welcomed the New Year on Wednesday midnight, these communities were looking up to the stars hoping to get shelter as promised by the Karnataka government under the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation,” Basha stated.
Meanwhile, a social activist camping at Kogilu and helping the dwellers, expressed shock at the fact that some sections of the media forced the dwellers to speak in Hindi, despite the dwellers’ willingness to speak in Kannada when officials and politicians, especially from the BJP, arrived at the site. “It appears that some people want the dwellers to be painted as illegal immigrants before BJP leaders, so they can raise the issue,” said the activist.
Meanwhile, officials from the Revenue department and Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation are thoroughly checking their documents, as they plan to move dwellers from Karnataka into flats measuring 350sqft in Baiyappanahalli. Homes for the eligible urban poor were announced by the State government in the 2025 budget.