CPM leader urges Rly Min to relocate Delhi's jhuggi dwellers before implementing SC order
new delhi: Following the Supreme Court's order to remove around 48,000 jhuggis lining the railway tracks of Delhi in three months, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat has now written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, urging him to make sure that the slum dwellers in these urban slums are not evicted before arrangements for their relocation, rehabilitation and compensation are made.
After the top court's order in the matter, people living along the railway tracks have expressed hopelessness and said that they would be rendered homeless if the order is implemented.
Meanwhile, Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar on Friday said his party would file a review petition in the Supreme Court.
Karat, in her letter to Goyal, said that as the Railway Minister, "you have the authority to ensure that jhuggi dwellers are ensured relocation and rehabilitation before the order is implemented".
She added that based on rough estimates, close to 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh people's lives will be affected by the court order and that at the time of a pandemic, "this will lead to a health disaster putting substantial numbers at grave risk".
"It will be highly irresponsible of the Railway Ministry to evict people at this time. Secondly, because of the lockdown, jhuggi dwellers have faced a huge drop in their meagre income and are already suffering. At such a time to turn them into homeless citizens would be an unconscionable act," the CPM leader said, urging Goyal to prevent the eviction of jhuggi dwellers without proper arrangements for the relocation and rehabilitation.
The leader also specifically pointed out that such action, at a time when Delhi seems to be experiencing a second wave of infections, would be nothing less than irresponsible.
Karat said, "People, families are not homeless or do not live in jhuggis out of choice but because of policies of successive central governments which have pushed them to the margins. The right to a home is a basic human right, not charity."
