DDA offers aid after demolishing U’khand tunnel rescue hero’s home, L-G promises new house

Only three months ago, Vakeel Hasan was feted as a hero for being part of the team of “rat-miners’’ who played a sterling role in rescuing 41 workers who were trapped for a fortnight in Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand.

But on Wednesday, the hero of Silkyara tunnel rescue mission found himself staring at the rubble of his small house which was demolished by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as part of its anti-encroachment drive in Sri Ram Colony in Northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas area, rendering the family homeless.

After the media reports appeared about Vakeel Hasan’s 80 square yard house being demolished, the administration rushed in to mount damage control exercise by offering to accommodate his family.

Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena who visited Northeast Delhi for inauguration of a convention centre told mediapersons that he had been told about the demolition and assured that the administration would provide a home to Vakeel Hasan’s family. “I have been told about this. We will compensate for this and will provide a home,’’ he said.

BJP’s MP from the area Manoj Tiwari who was also with the L-G said that Hasan’s family will be provided a home under Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY). “We will provide him accommodation soon. It is our responsibility,’’ he told journalists.

AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said: “When all eyes were on Uttarakhand, these rat miners saved the life of tunnel workers by endangering their own. At that time all BJP leaders visited their houses to get credit. Yesterday, the DDA who works under the Central govt demolished the house of one of those rat miners. It’s not about this one house, in the last one and half years, lakhs of people have lost their homes. Where will these people go? Without giving any alternatives to them, people are left on the roads.’’

In less than 24 hours after razing his house in a demolition drive in Delhi, the DDA offered to move Vakeel Hasan and his family to temporary accommodation but he declined the offer, officials said on Thursday.

Hassan told reporters that DDA officials offered temporary accommodation in a guest house in Vasant Kunj and told him that his family would soon be provided a house in the Govindpuri area, but he refused the offer as it was only a “verbal assurance”.

The rat miner alleged that the DDA razed his house in Delhi’s Khajoori Khas on Wednesday without prior notice to him. Hasan and his family had to spend the night outside after the demolition.

The DDA, in a statement, said: “In its role as an authority, it cannot allow encroachment on its land, or unauthorised constructions in its development areas”.

It said that Vakeel Hassan was aware of his house’s “status of encroachment” as it had been previously removed in 2016 and was encroached upon again in 2017.

Asserting that it was a “routine encroachment removal drive”, the DDA said Wednesday’s action did not “target any particular individual”.

All these attempts for demolishing this property were well within the knowledge of Hasan and his family and they were aware about their status as encroachers, the DDA said in the statement.

The demolition team and local police reached the location and requested Hasan’s family to “vacate the encroached area”, the DDA said. “After affording sufficient time to him for removal of their belongings from the encroached structure, the encroached area was cleared,” the statement said.

However, given the contribution made by Hasan in the rescue operation of the workers in Uttarakhand, the “DDA will still continue with its efforts to provide its help to the family” of Hasan, it added.

The DDA also clarified that “at no point of time before or during the demolition exercise, were the DDA officials aware of Hasan’s role in the rescue operation in Uttarakhand. The DDA maintained the demolition drive was carried out on land that was “part of planned development land”.

Hasan spent the night on the street with his wife and two children near the rubble of his house.

Their neighbours provided food and other necessary items.

The DDA, in its statement, said when Hasan’s role in the tunnel rescue operation came to light, officials made alternate arrangements of shelter for his family and went to the site and contacted him.

However, he wanted the authorities to make their offer in writing.