Final Report

REPORT

VISITS TO RESETTLEMENT SITES AND

INFORMATION GATHERING

Submitted to;

Dr. Usha RamanathanDr. Veronique Depont

Submitted by;

Aditya Swarup,NALSAR University of Law

Hyderabad

Date of project: 14th May – 31st May 2007

Date of Submission: 4th June 2007

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

MADANPUR KHADAR....................................................................................................4

ROHINI...............................................................................................................................7

BHALASWA DAIRY.......................................................................................................11

YAMUNA PUSHTA.........................................................................................................15

NARELA...........................................................................................................................24

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This document contains reports of the field visits undertaken as a part of the work plan

submitted and agreed upon on the 14th of May, 2007.

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MADANPUR KHADAR

(JJ Resettlement Colony)

Date : 21st May 2007

The area is located next to Sarita Vihar in South Delhi. It is well connected by buses with

three to four buses standing by the resettlement site at any given point of time. The

Colony has a population of around 22,000 people with most of them coming from the

earlier slums of Alaknanda, Nehru Place, Bhinjwada and Rajivnagar.

Land Allotment :

The Delhi Development Authority plan involved the allotment of plots of two main sizes;

one 22 gaj (squares) and the other 12 gaj (squares). According to the residents, those who

were present before 1987 at the demolition site received the larger plots while the smaller

ones were given to those who were present before 1994.

For this purpose, the DDA charged the follwing;

Corner site : Rs. 20,000 /-

Other sites : Rs. 7000 /-

The people have constructed multi- storied houses on their plots. While most of the men

work in the city, some have set up small shops on their plots.

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One of the Houses in the Colony

Electricity :

The DDA has provided all the plots with electricity. However, each household does not

get electricity for more than 10 hours a day.

Sanitation :

Around 18 Sulabh Complexes were built in 2002. Each of these complexes has 16 toilets

for men and another 16 for women. There is one toilet for around every hundred men.

The toilet is run by one man appointed by the DDA. He is given a certain sum of which

he is suppose to manage the toilet and keep the rest as salary. Most of the houses have

built their own toilets and bathing rooms. Thus there is no rush or hurry for the toilets in

the morning.

A Sulabh Shauchalaya Complex.

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The biggest problem for the colony is water. There are two pump stations which are

insufficient to give water to everyone. Most of the people have fixed pumps and tube

wells next to their plots.

Education :

According to the locals, there are three ‘decent’ schools running in the area.

Health :

There is no government/ government aided medical facility in the area. Private Doctors

and practitioners are however available who charge comparatively high for their services.

There are some Resident Welfare Associations in the area. The President of one of them

is Mr. S. Sinha. He may be contacted at 9312574687 or 011- 32507790.

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ROHINI

Date: 22nd May 2007.

Sites visited: Rohini Sector 24 and 25.

How to reach there- One may take the metro till Rithala Station and ask for Rohini

Sector 24 from there. Sector 25 is next to it.

The resettlement site at Sector 24 contains around 1470 plots. All of them are managed

by the Slum and JJ department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. In all, there are

about 10, 500 people residing in this area. I have been told that the original settlers had to

pay Rs. 7000/- each for a plot. These plots were allotted to them on the basis of the ration

card in their possession. Most of the Original residents of the colony came from the Gol

Market area in Central Delhi.

The resettlement site at Sector 25 contains 1160 plots. It is said that the people out here

were shifted from Chanakyapuri and ITO areas of Delhi.

Amenities like electricity, water and

health have been provided to the residents.

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Facilities: The Government authorities have provided the residents with electricity, water

and appropriate sewage systems. No resident seemed to complain as to the facilities that

were provided. Electricity remains for about 22 hrs in a day. Since there is a drainage

system, there are no government toilets/ Sulabh toilets in the area.

* Surrounding the resettlement colony is a Mall and an amusement park. The colony is

well connected by transport and most of the men from the household work in Central

Delhi.

Property shops like this one

are in abundance in the Area.

While there seems to be not much of a problem with the amenities provided in the area,

the other side of the story is a bit scandalous. Around 80 per cent of the original residents

don’t stay there any more. They all seem to have sold their plots and gone either to the

village or other slums. Property prices are sharply risen and plots once bought for 7000

rupees are now being sold for 3.5 lakhs. There are a lot of property dealers in this area

who I understand charge a fees of 10% on every transaction.

One of the residents I talked to said that he bought his plot in 2002 for Rs. 61, 000. There

are quite a number of people who own cars in the area (Maruti, Qualis, Zen etc…).

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Licenses: Since most of the residents are not those who previously lived in slums or JJ

clusters, getting the licenses becomes difficult. I spoke to an original resident whose

grand daughter told me that they had been instructed not to show their licenses else their

plot wouldn’t be sold.

I have come to understand that there is no fixed period for the license in this area and that

the people can be displaced by providing a reasonable notice. However, since I could not

get a copy of the license I cannot confirm the same.

The Slum and JJ Dept.

Building in Sector 25, Rohini.

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Information: Some of the statistical data was given to me by the Slum and JJ

Departments in the respective colonies. They also told me that one of the conditions was

that the property must not be sold or transferred to anyone. On inquiring as to what is told

if they are apprised of such an instance, they said that they clear the plot and allot it to

someone else. With more than 80% of the plots already sold, something seems fishy in

this business.

Mr. Kamal Sharma

Junior Engineer,

Slum and JJ Department,

Sector- 24, Rohini

Delhi- 110084

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BHALASWA DAIRY

Date: 23rd May 2007

Sites visited: Bhalaswa Dairy

How to reach there: One needs to take the metro till Pitampura Station. From there you

need to walk down to Madhuban Chowk and take a bus till Bhalaswa (No 254) or till the

Bypass road and a bus from there till Bhalaswa. Upon reaching the Bhalaswa nala, you

have to take a cycle rickshaw to the JJ colony on Gurudwara road.

There are around 2600 plots in the area. Most of the people who are settled here have

come from ITO, Nizamuddin and Lajpat Nagar. Each plot out here was given to the

families at a cost of Rs. 7000/-. Unlike Rohini, neither did I find or hear of anyone who

was not from a JJ colony and staying there. In all, there are about 22, 000 residents in this

area.

*Those living near the ITO (Income Tax Office) were brought to the area in the year

2000.

*Those from Nizamuddin were brought to the area in the year 2002 (jan).

The Bhalaswa Area is where the Delhi Landfill is located. The JJ colony itself is

surrounded by sewage ponds and the existence of fowl smell is perpetual.

A view of the JJ Colony at Bhalaswa .

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The pond surrounding the JJ

Colony

Conveyance: Traveling seems to be a big problem to the residents in the area. There are

DTC buses that leave every three hours unlike Madanpur Khadar where at any given

point of time there are three buses waiting.

Facilities:

Electricity seems to the only amenity provided to the residents of the area. There is no

drainage system and open drains pass through the houses of the residents. The residents

complain that the electricity rate is very high and they have to shed large amounts of their

salary on paying electricity bills every month.

Water however, seems to be the most important problem for the residents. There are very

few taps and most of the residents have to get water from them. Also since the area is

located near the land fill, the ground water quality seems to have become polluted as in

the water from the two taps that I tested, one was yellow and the other black. On

enquiring then if someone was suffering from any health problems, I found out that there

are a few who have stomach aches and a lying at home. One Kanta Bai’s husband is at

home for the past 6 days due to a stomach ache. The women were complaining of hair

fall and that they now fear of going bald.

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Sanitation: The area is divided into 10 pockets. In each pocket there are suppose to be

two Government/ Sulabh toilets. Out of the total 20 toilets, only eight of them are

functional. There is a lot of inconvenience caused to the residents in the morning as they

have to rush to work while there are huge queues for the toilets.

A Sulabh toilet in the area.

Health : There is not hospital within the vicinity. A dispensary that was started by the

government doesn’t have any medicines.

The government dispensary that has

run out of medicines.

Education: There are two schools that have been set up by the government. Both the

institutions I hear are running well and are in a good condition.

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Land Allotment: Ordinarily each family possessing a ration card is to be given one plot

in the area. The residents however complain that they have been allotted the same plots/

that their allotments have been combined. That is, two families are staying in the same

plot but they possess different ration cards and voter identity cards. According to the

residents such a situation exists in around 40-50 plots.

As regards licenses, the residents understand that it is for a ten year period after which

they can be evicted by giving a notice. Of the papers that I saw, they seemed to have only

the allotment letter and not the license.

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YAMUNA PUSHTA

Date : 24th May 2007

Accompanied by; Dr. Usha Ramanathan and Wrick Mitra.

On the 23rd of May, 2007, there was a fire in JJ Colony in Yamuna Pushta. The fire is

said to have broken out at around 1400 hrs and extinguished by 1545 Hrs. The area is

located on the main road towards Geeta Colony near the Kishanganj Bus stop.

The Times of India reported, (P. 4, 24th May, 2007)

“ 450 Yamuna Pushta hutments gutted – It was a major fire since there are three LPG go-

downs located in the area. Around 15- 20 cylinders burst that led the fire to spread

rapidly.”

Most of the dwellers in the area are from Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A lot of them are collectors of used clothes which is one of the reasons for the fire

spreading quickly. According to the residents, the fire started from a house whose

residents had gone to Gujarat for the Navratra celebrations. There is no definite idea as to

how this could happen.

Around the slum area, there are about four gas cylinder go-downs. Upon enquiring

whether they suffered any damage as the newspaper had reported so, they stated that no

cylinder had burst in the go-down and everything was safe out here.

While the fire broke out at around 1400 Hrs, it took around twenty minutes for the first

two trucks of the fire brigade to arrive. However, they did not have water/ concentrate

and thus did not play any role in extinguishing the fire. It took another fifteen minutes for

the other 20 so trucks to arrive which took an hour in extinguishing the fire. It is

surprising that fire trucks would arrive without any water at the area.

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Possibility of a scam

The residents feel that the whole fire was a part of a plan to evict the residents. There had

been rumours floating around that they’d be evicted for the past year or so. On the 25 th of

April, there was a notion that they’d be evicted but the sarpanch calmed the residents

down and assured them that this can’t happen as no notice had been given to them.

However, the fact that the house was unoccupied when the fire broke out and that the fire

brigade claimed that they did not have water give rise to certain assumptions that

something dirty was planned by the government.

The Government has brought to police to see to it that no one steals anything from the

dwellers. Food is being provided by them and water tanks have been brought to the area

to provide the residents with water.

* Amidst all this most of the residents have lost their important documents like ration

cards, identity cards, insurance papers etc… They did not know that they had to file an

F.I.R. otherwise they would be at a disadvantage in the future.

School children have lost their books and uniforms and now have to buy them again

which will cost the families who have lost everything a lot of money. The government

has taken no measure to ensure that such great repercussions do not follow.

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PHOTOS

Above – Children’s books and clothes that were burnt by the fire.

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Most of the dwellers in the area live in tents such as the one in the picture.

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NARELA

Date: 22nd May 2007.

Sites visited: Narela; Gautam colony.

How to reach there- One may take the metro till kashmiri gate Station and from there

bus numbers 103 and 131 to Narela. The whole journey to Narela takes about 2 ½ to 3

hours.

The resettlement site at Gautam colony contains around 1000 plots. The site was

provided by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). There are about 7600 people

residing in the area. According to the terms of the license, the owners are supposed to pay

Rupees 5000/ 7000 as a one time fee and from then on Rs. 200/year for ten years.

However, there is no express mention as to what shall happen if the money is not paid.

Facilities: The Government has hardly provided the residents with any facilities.

Electricity remains to be the only amenity that has been provided. There are open drains

that run so deep that small children fall in them and drown. In the past three years, about

ten children have drowned. There have also been some cases of dengue because of the

open drains.

The government has provided the residents with three Sulabh toilets have a total of 48

toilets each for men and women. While the number is quite less as compared to other

areas, water is provided for only about 3 hours a day which further adds to the misery.

There are no government hospitals in the area and people have to go to Government

hospitals which are far away for health problems

Information: The information was first given to me by the local shopkeepers after which

I was directed to the village pradhan (head) who courteously answered all my questions.

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When they were brought here in 2000, they just had plots and electricity and now they

seem to be developing with whatever little they have. He may be contacted at;

Mr. Shyam Bharti

Village Pradhan

B- 75, Gautam Colony

Narela

I was then directed to some houses made by the DDA for slum dwellers( Section 6). It

seems that no one took them and hence other residents occupied them.

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