NEW DELHI: Independence Day celebrations won’t be the same for residents of Bhalswa Dairy. As residents stare at looming eviction a day later by the city’s civic body for “encroaching” the land designated for dairy farming, they say their independence is eclipsed by the anxiety of displacement.
“How are we supposed to celebrate Independence when our houses are set to be demolished the very next day. What about our Independence?,” a 34-year-old man who has lived in the area for the past 30 years told this newspaper.
The municipal corporation had planned a demolition drive in Bhalswa Dairy on Tuesday; three bulldozers reached the site amid heavy police deployement, only to face a sea of protestors opposing the drive.
Thus, the exercise was halted until August 16. Now, uncertainty looms over residents as they face the axe of eviction. “People are sick from the extreme stress. If it was illegal, how have the colonies remained here for so many years,” a local named Sonu questioned.
To mark their protest, hundreds of children on Wednesday took out a tricolour march against what they claimed as the administration’s “dictatorial and inhumane decision”.
“This is not an illegal encroachment. This was all barren land when we settled here in 1976. It is not illegal but a legal dairy farm,” a local named Santram Pradhan said.
“There are families here; people have removed the tin sheds covering their farms and made permanent structures. These are not rich people, they struggle to earn daily bread by doing small jobs,” he said, urging the authorities to provide them legal recognition.
A distraught Jitender Kumar, resident of the area for past five decades, could only question his condition, “Why should we move from a place we have called home for so long?”
‘Strcutures unauthorised’
The MCD has identified around 800 illegal structures in Bhalswa Dairy colonies, where land originally designated for dairy farming has been allegedly repurposed for residential and commercial use. In a public notice last week, the civic body gave a 3-day ultimatum to defaulters to vacate the “encroached premises”. Action will be taken against all unauthorised constructions, it said.