Clearing Encroachments and rehabilitation...

The day for me today didn’t start quite well, after I saw the news about the tragic death of a 6 months old child in Delhi.

The Hindu reported that, the kid was mistakenly wrapped into the bundle of cloths when its parents were hurriedly evacuating their home for a demolition drive ordered by the railway authorities in West Delhi’s Shakur Basti.

Even though the hard steps of the officials were condemned by the Delhi CM by suspending the authorities, the railway authorities in a statement said the child’s death was not related to the demolition.

Then, How?

The parents wrapped their kid in the bundle of cloths to play hide and seek with it??

Have the officials kept the people informed about the demolition? Yes says the officials.

"In the last nine months, three notices had been issued to encroachers to vacate railway land. The first one was issued in March. The second notice directed them to vacate by September 30, but they did not do so. The last notice asked them to vacate by December 12"

May be the parents, on their urge to pack things up, failed to notice their kid crawled to a different place or may be something else happened… Only an enquiry would reveal the truth. Nevertheless! An infant have breathed its last! Leaving an incurable hurt for its parents... :( :(

Now! Being a Chennaite... My thought goes with the encroachment clearance which is planned for
Chennai....

I would like to narrate a story which happened exactly 13 years back.

It was a monsoon season, Porur lake got filled due to incessant rain in the season and water released out of the lake went into the nearby residents (Madha Nagar, Movlivakkam, Porur etcs..). There were knee level water on the roads, but apart from few huts which were constructed in the ground level, no other residents got water into their home.

It was the same ADMK government in power, by then. There were serious allegations raised against the government regarding the encroachments made in the channel, which is supposed to take the excess water to the nearby Adyar river.

I was in my +2 at that time. One of my class mate came to my home and said the government officials were demolishing his home saying it was constructed in the channel without approval and their family is on the roads.

Shocked by hearing this, I went with him to see the place. I still remember the agony and pain of my friend’s family. His father was a mason and a very hard working man too. He with his limited daily income, saved money and constructed the house himself. I even remember my friend once saying to me proudly that his father himself constructed his house.They were not having electricity till he was in his 10th. The reason he would say is the authorities were asking for 3K to provide the EB connection. Later his father managed to get the EB connection as well. 

If the land was an un-authorized one, how the EB connection came? No words from the authorities for this...

I saw his father standing there watching his own house demolished by JCP.

At that time, the priority for the government is to clear the encroachments and show to public that it has cleared them with iron hands.

Yes! It was a deadly iron hand, which came as a blow to my friends family which lead his father paralyzed in few months and he passed away after a year.

Obviously! The government would say that it or the demolition drive it conducted is not responsible for my friend losing his father.

But, no one knew the impact, the incident created in his life. Despite being a topper in studies, he was not able to score good marks in that year's public exam. Despite getting a seat in a private engineering college through a kind hearted well-wisher, he was not able to continue his studies, as his father was paralyzed by that time.

Not only his life. Like him, we have lakhs and lakhs of people living in unauthorized land either as encroachment or as slum dwellers.

Now in Chennai! We are even talking about restoring the water ways and marsh lands which were now become approved plots, IT parks and residential area by the government.

I can see some politicians now making statements to clear the water ways by removing the encroachment with iron hand. 

Again!!!! :( :(

The question comes to my mind is... How many such family is going to bear the brunt now?

Do we think a notice by the authority is enough for demolishing a house?

Almost for all of them, the only earnings they have for their life would be their home and nothing else. If we take a survey of all of our people, those who have investment and account balance to protect their financial loss can be counted in fingers.

Now tell me! Do we really need an IRON HAND to clear the encroachments or a responsible sequential process to restore the water ways through various steps of rehabilitation?