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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, MARCH 26: In Sundernagri, jhuggi dwellers swear by Sher Nabi Chaman. They are his tenants’ on a plot of DDA land, he claims he inherited from his father and uncle. And no one, neither the DDA nor the local police, can move him out permanently, he says. His tenants’ provide the muscle power, his contacts’ manage the rest.
On March 4, however, the DDA managed to demolish all illegal constructions Chaman had built on their 314 feet x 314 feet plot, off Bhajanpura Road. Chaman was arrested and released on bail. But the next day he came back, the jhuggis a week later.
Hapless DDA officials don’t know what to do. The localpolice, they say, are not helping either. And they still have to ensure that they implement Lieutenant Governor Vijai Kapoor’s order regarding the removal of encroachments from all Government land.
Chaman’s belligerence is not an isolated example, add DDA officials. The DDA acquired this plot, like several other areas, in 1968. Since then, most of these places, which had been lying unattended, fell prey to land-grabbers.“We had tried to evict them earlier, but the efforts were halfhearted. But this time, after the LG’s order, we have to show results,” says DDA Deputy Director (east zone) Salig Ram,“These encroachers, like Chaman, use all kinds of connections and methods, political and apolitical, to stop us.”In June 1997, the DDA made an unsuccessful attempt to evict Chaman. Once again, in November last year, they were forced to retreat. When a team of DDA officials went to evict the encroachers that time, Chaman retaliated with a mob of over 5,000 jhuggi dwellers. “This time they caught meunawares,” he says.
Chaman’s argument for staking claim to the plot of land is on the basis of the plot number. He insists it is in the 22-3/4/8 series. But land records and the site map available with the DDA clearly show this plot is more than 2 km away in Mandoli from the encroached land. “The DDA land is in the 976 series in Sundernagri, nowhere near what he claims. He is simply making excuses,” says Deputy Director Ram.
A day after the demolishing jhuggis and shops on the encroached land, DDA officials attempted to build a boundary wall. But Chaman and his tenants’ pelted stones, took away the bricks and mortar and forced the DDA team to run for cover. Three policemen from Nandnagri Police Station stood watching.“Since then, we have been writing letters to the police. The local police have pleaded helplessness. The DCP is yet to reply,” says a DDA official.Says DCP (north-east) Muktesh Chander: “I am yet to receive their letter. But I will do the needful as soon as they contact me.” The DDAhad sent the letter on March 8, a copy of which shows it had been received by the DCP’s office.
Eight years ago, Chaman came to Sundernagri “from nowhere”. An unconfirmed story doing the rounds in the resettlement colony, built in 1976, is that he fled to Delhi after he was involved in a crime in Meerut. Residents say he spotted the vacant plot of land, removed a signpost which stated it was earmarked for a school and public park, replaced it with one reading Chaman Estate’ and announced he was the owner. No one argued and over 50 jhuggis came up within a month.
Chaman, on the other hand, says he has always been there, only a kilometre away in village Mandoli. “In fact, the whole of Sundernagri belonged to us till the DDA acquired the land,” he claims,“But they didn’t acquire this plot.”
So until March 4, when the DDA came demolishing, Chaman says he was collecting rent from his tenants who were running a hotel, shops or had built jhuggis there. “I have even sold a small portion of the land tothree persons recently,” boasts Chaman.
He is now busy getting the jhuggis reconstructed and his tenants resettled on the same land. “As far as I am concerned,” he says,“the demolition was an unfortunate episode. If they come again, we’ll react accordingly.”
