Residents of slums in the Chander road area of Dalanwala had staged protest against the Dehradun Municipal Corporation’s attempts to demolish the community centre and school located in their area.
Dehradun: Residents in the slums in the Chander Road area of Dalanwala have now gone to Nainital High Court against the Dehradun Municipal Corporation’s attempts to demolish the community centre and school located in the area, claiming it to be on the Rispana floodplain.Residents had a fright earlier this week when DMC teams rushed to the locality with a JCB to clear encroached land.“The school here has nearly 450 students enrolled. The land for this school was donated by my grandfather decades ago. It is built on private land and is very far from the river. Any claims of this being an encroachment are false, and the corporation should have verified this information before they showed up for demolition,” said Abhishek Passi, an area resident and member of the Youth Congress.Residents said that the community hall of Gandhi Basti that was also targeted by DMC is an old construction and was built by then-MLA Rajkumar.“It is an authorised structure built by the rural engineering services. We hold weddings, functions, health camps and all sorts of gatherings there. The washroom complex was also built in 2015 with proper regulations. It is regularly used by the public and caters to hundreds as it is the only such facility in the area.
For a basti, such establishments are a lifeline and are indispensable for the community,” said Praveen Tyagi, area councillor for adjoining ward.Dwellers claim that DMC did not issue any prior notice before undertaking the demolition work and are now living scared. “They gave us five days to pack up our belongings, but the basti has been around for decades, which is why we have gone to court now. We are hoping for a stay, but till then we are scared of DMC showing up with a JCB any day,” said a dweller.Residents are threatening an agitation against authorities if the action continues without any resolution. A similar situation prevailed in the Kathbangla colony as well when DMC issued evacuation notices to residents last year, though no action has taken place yet.Additional commissioner, Praveen Kumar, said that DMC action was in accordance with NGT orders and the civic body will take further action in the matter, though an immediate demolition drive has not been scheduled for now.Officials maintain that these actions are in accordance with NGT guidelines to remove encroachments from all river floodplains in Dehradun.Meanwhile, to commemorate Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali on Thursday, social and labour organisations across the state raised their voices against the repression being inflicted upon the labour movement and condemned the enforcement of bulldozer raj against people’s rights in such dwellings, who are already burdened by rising inflation, unemployment, gas shortage and new labour codes.
