HC raps govt for selective rehab of slum- dwellers

The Delhi high court has pulled up the city government for not complying with its order to rehabilitate slumdwellers. The court has also sought the presence of a senior official of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board.

The court has asked for the presence of the allotment director of DUSIB for “wilfully” not complying with the court’s order to rehabilitate all the 223 people evicted from a slum in the city.

The court also said that the director allotment is the concerned officer responsible for implementation of this order. “Let him be present in court. Prima facie order passed by this court was wilfully not complied with,” said the court. “No response has been filed on the showcause notice issued. In this view, it would be appropriate to call the officer on the next date of hearing in the court,” added the court.

The court had issued a showcause notice to the government and asked it to explain why it had not rehabilitated all the 223 slum- dwellers.

The DUSIB had decided to rehabilitate only four families out of the 223 people who were evicted from the slum where they had been living before May, 1998.

The court was approached by the slumdwellers saying that the government hasn’t followed its February 2010 order to rehabilitate them. They were evicted from their hutments as per the Master PlanDelhi 2021.