A large number of residents of Faridabad’s Khori Basti marched towards the Prime Minister’s office in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum with an appeal to save the colony from the Supreme Court-ordered demolition.
Led by former Lok Sabha MP and Congress national spokesperson Udit Raj, the residents, including women, carried out a march towards the Prime Minister’s Office under the aegis of All India Confederation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes organisations.
Carrying placards that read, “Save Khori, Save Migrants” and “Please Save Khori”, the demonstrators started the march from Atul Grover Road. However, they were stopped by the police at Jantar Mantar. The protesters appealed to the government to get the Supreme Court order repealed so that millions of lives can be saved during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Raj attacked the Haryana government saying that the State government should have made rehabilitation arrangements before displacement, but unfortunately it did not happen. The people have built their homes with blood and sweat, which were being demolished in front of their own eyes, said Dr. Raj, adding that this would not be tolerated at any cost.
The Supreme Court had last month directed Faridabad municipal corporation to demolish the houses in 170-acre Khori Basti on the forest land within six weeks. The residents have been demanding that the government should rehabilitate them or revoke the SC order to provide them relief.
Forcing to vacate
Sanjay Raj, national treasurer of the confederation, said that power and water supply to the houses in the colony was snapped to force them to vacate their houses. Social activist Meenu Verma, also part of the demonstration, said: “The third wave of COVID-19 has arrived and in this situation it was inhumane to make thousands of children homeless. If electricity and water supply in not restored in the colony, thousands of lives will be put to danger during the pandemic”.
The State Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Haryana has strongly condemned the illegal and inhumane actions of the State government for en masse eviction of thousands of Khori Basti residents.
