Slum dwellers clash with police during JMC eviction drive
HOMELESS More than 80 families were evicted from the slum. Their houses were demolished earlier on July 25
Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) on Wednesday used excavators to flatten a slum at the Indra Nagar Kachchi Basti in Jaipur’s Jhalana neighbourhood loaded the debris into trucks as slum dwellers watched helplessly.
The JMC cleared more than 5000 sq m land at the spot and erected a boundary wall around where the slum had stood.
On July 25, the civic authorities demolished houses after serving a notice to the dwellers to vacate the slum a month earlier.
More than 80 families, most of them daily wage workers and rag-pickers, were living at the slum for more than two decades.
Deputy commissioner of JMC’s Moti Doongri zone Ashok Yogi said the slum dwellers were squatters and had encroached upon the government land.
When the civic body’s officials along with the police reached the spot on Wednesday, the slum dwellers pelted stones at the officials, he said.
“A stone hit a constable in the head while another hit a sub-inspector in the leg. The glass panes of some of the excavator machines too were damaged.”
Pana Bai, a slum dweller and a daily wage worker, admitted that some of her fellow residents pelted stones at the officials.
“They came to uproot us. What else could we have done?” she said while rummaging through the debris looking for something that was still usable.
“The police beat up 15-20 slum dwellers and rounded them up.”
Kunwar Rastradeep, the dep-
The JMC has also filed a case against eight people for assaulting a public servant and obstructing him from discharging his duty. A case has also been lodged against them under for pelting stones.
uty commissioner of police (Jaipur East) said police took 14 men into preventive custody and presented them before a magistrate.
“The JMC has also filed a case against eight people along with others for assaulting a public servant and obstructing him from discharging his duty.
“A case has also been lodged against them under Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code for pelting stones,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kavita Srivastava, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) condemned the action of the civic body and called it suppressive.
“Demolishing the houses of people during the monsoon and making aged people and children homeless only shows the insensitive nature of the government,” a PUCL release said.
The PUCL further urged the government to rehabilitate the slum dwellers and allow them to live at the same place until they are rehabilitated.
The civic body will develop the place but has no plan regarding how to develop it, said Rastradeep.