The Hindu : Protest against move to demolish dwellings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 10, 2003

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Protest against move to demolish dwellings

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 9. Representatives of nearly 365 villages of Delhi convened a Mahapanchayat at Jantar Mantar here today to demand an immediate end to the displacement of a large number of families of the Tughlakabad village by the NDA Government and inclusion of the extended "abadi'' under the Lal Dora.

The Mahapanchayat was attended by several senior political leaders including the Lok Janshakti Party president, Ram Vilas Paswan, its vice-president, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the Delhi unit BJP chief, Madan Lal Khurana, and MP, Talib Hussain.

The protesters burnt copies of the Delhi Land Reforms Act which they said was responsible for the present mess and poor condition of the villagers and farmers. The Mahapanchayat also decided to start an indefinite dharna to seek justice from the Central Government and also pledged not to celebrate Holi in protest against the move to uproot thousands of people from their homes.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Paswan termed the move of the Central Government as anti-poor and anti-farmer and added that his party would not allow such an injustice to take place. He warned the Central Government that any attempt to remove the people from their rightful land would be resisted by his party and that it would not hesitate to launch an agitation against the NDA Government.

Mr. Khurana assured the Mahapanchayat on behalf of the Central Government that the Tughlakabad villages will not be abolished and the 5,00,000 houses constructed before 2002 in the extended abadi of 365 villages of Delhi will be regularised and given all the basic amenities.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Bidhuri said the transfer of the land by the Land and Building Department of the Delhi Government to the Archaeological Survey of India in 1995 was illegal and without any legal sanctity.

He said that as the land was not under the Delhi Government, it could not enter into such a transfer and all this was done with a malafide intention. Mr. Bidhuri said the Tughlakabad village has had a municipal corporation ward since 1958 and the metropolitan council and Assembly seats are in the name of the village. As per the Delhi Government revenue records, the village is 700 years old, he added.

Mr. Bidhuri said the Delhi Government and the Central Government had decided to regularise unauthorised colonies in the Capital which had come up till 2002. However, he regretted that no step had been taken to regularise the structures outside the Lal Dora area of 365 villages of Delhi.

The Mahapanchayat has demanded that the five lakh houses that have come up in the area outside the Lal Dora should be regularised along with the unauthorised colonies so that basic amenities are provided to them.

A memorandum was also later submitted at the Prime Minister's Office and to the Delhi Chief Minister.

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