new delhi: With the tension in Jahangirpuri already palpable, shopkeepers and residents in the C Block were worried on Wednesday morning when they nervously asked the police in the area whether their properties would be demolished. They were all told by authorities that their structures would not be razed.
In the next couple of hours, these residents wept, pleaded and shouted at authorities as the North MCD razed their shops while the law enforcement agencies locked people into narrow lanes — leaving them no option but to watch their livelihoods go down in seconds before their eyes.
35-year-old Rahima has been living in the Jahangirpuri area all her life and used to run a cold drink store, which was razed to the ground Wednesday morning. "We were not given any notice. We asked them in the morning and they told us our shop will not be touched. Now, I am left with nothing," a teary-eyed Rahima said.
While a horde of shops and stalls were razed, the North MCD also claimed that parts of the Jahangirpuri Jama Masjid, where the Hanuman Jayanti procession turned violent last week, were illegally made and also razed these parts of it.
The police were quick to barricade the area around the mosque but Millennium Post saw that several other religious structures on the same road were left untouched. Authorities claimed stalls built near the mosque were illegal and razed them, also demolishing parts of the mosque's front gate and porch.
And while the Supreme Court has granted temporary releif to residents of Jahangirpuri, most of those who lost their shops on Wedensday are mostly Muslim, reeling under a mountain of debt and now have no way to pay it off.
Rahima said she had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh for her shop. Her next EMI installment of Rs 12,000 is now due and she has no way to pay it.
Sajjid Saifi, 44, who ran an electrical store till Wednesday morning near the mosque said he had all paperwork for his store but no one was willing to even see them, leading him to believe that the action was targeted at Muslims in the area. "MCD has come to our house to demolish our dreams and my only source of employment has gone now. I somehow managed to earn to eat two meals a day," he said.
Ganesh Kumar Gupta, a 54-year-old juice shop owner, kept waving his shop's paperwork throughout Wednesday in the hopes that authorities would spare his shop. But they did not. He insisted that the DDA had approved his shop and that his father had been running it since 1978. He now wants to go to court.
Another grocery shop owner Raman Jha claimed that his shop is 35-year-old and he was informed that nothing will happen to the shops, which have valid documents, however, his shop was also demolished without any notice.
All those affected by the demolition drive told Millennium Post that they had the paperwork and were never told even once about their properties being illegal or that they would be demolished. Most had been living and working in the area for several decades.
And while those like Aashu (36), a mechanic, wonder what they will do next with not enough resources to approach courts, others like 40-year-old Hussain asked how their shops had become "illegal" overnight. "If my shop was illegal, why did the MCD wait 20 years to demolish it?" Hussain asked.
(With inputs from Naresh Biswani)