‘Give us tents and water,’ displaced slum dwellers from Nizamuddin urge govt

 Stranded after their houses were razed, residents of the slum cluster near Humayun tomb have asked the government to give them “at least tent and water.”

The slum cluster between the Sundar Nursery and the Delhi Public School inhabited by about 1,000 to 1,500 people, most of whom engaged as ragpickers, street hawkers, maids, labourers and small-scale traders, was demolished in a drive following a court’s order last week. Most of these slum dwellers allege that they were asked to vacate their houses in two days with no offer from the government for relocation.

‘It has been a week and we are literally living on the streets. Can’t the government provide tents and water at least?’ Dimple, one of the residents of the slum cluster, asked.

‘I have a family of five and I have been living here for the last fifty years. Why didn’t the government think about us once before taking this step? We are not even getting a place to live,’ Dimple told reporters.

By the time bulldozers were done with their work on the morning of November 21, the place bore the image of a huge junkyard, composed of household articles, furniture, and everything else that made the razed shanties home.

Mohammad Chand, a worker at a sofa repair shop, has been visiting the demolished area every day, only to check if he can find something of his that may be lying beneath the rubble. ‘We were given notice for just two days and then they arrived with the bulldozers. They came with 18 to 20 bulldozers and reduced this place to rubble in just four to five hours,’ Chand said.