The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) on Wednesday kicked off the final phase of demolition at the Khori Basti here with less than a week to go for the Supreme Court deadline to remove the encroachment on the forest land.
Garima Mittal, MCF Commissioner, said the demolition drive began in the morning and was peaceful. She said the teams were on the site, but refused to divulge operational details, including the number of houses to be demolished. She said that the drive was being carried out in bits and pieces since the Supreme Court order and several FIRs were also registered.
Also read: Save us from demolition: Khori Basti residents
The Supreme Court on June 7 ordered the demolition of the structures on the 170-acre Khori Basti on the forest land within six weeks. Social activists and political leaders of various parties have been demanding that Khori Basti residents be rehabilitated before carrying out of the demolition drive and compensated.
Spread across 170 acres, the colony has 5,158 houses, 80 shops, five educational institutes, 36 social, public utility and religious structures and two industrial units. Most of the residents are migrants who came to Faridabad to work at mines in Aravali and bought plots through local real estate agents to settle there in early 1990s.
Also read: Khori Basti residents seek relief from demolition order
The Faridabad district administration also announced a policy to rehabilitate those having Haryana voter identity cards, Parivar Pechan Patra or the electricity bills, but the activists objected to it saying that government should not resort to “pick and choose” and extend the rehabilitation policy to all. Social activist Meenu Verma said only 1,000 or so residents were eligible for rehabilitation.
Former Lok Sabha MP and Congress national spokesperson Udit Raj also held demonstrations in Delhi along with Khori residents earlier this month, seeking to revoke the court order and save the houses from demolition.
