Home--Issues--Globalization

Stop Evictions at Yamuna Pushta

• The manufacturers' associations of two industrial areas in Delhi, the capital of India, had petitioned the High Court of Delhi in 1994 and 2002, for the removal of slum clusters from their areas.
• These slum clusters were, in fact, created to house the labour working in these industrial areas because there was no provision for workers' housing.
• However, going beyond the ambit of the original petitions, the Court ruled in November 2002 that all those who had settled in slums anywhere in the city after 1990 should be evicted and not given any "free" land for resettlement.
• This ruling did not consider the available evidence that the government had provided only 35% of mandated housing, and that each "resettled" family was paying Rs 7,000 for a license to a tiny plot of land for 5 years.
• Consequently, there was a public uproar after this ruling and the government was forced to approach the Supreme Court, which stayed the above order in March 2003.
• However, in March 2003 the High Court held another hearing in the original matter and, frustrated by the Supreme Court stay, it decided to issue another order directing the authorities to remove all unauthorised constructions along the banks of the river Yamuna that flows through Delhi.
• One of the grounds for the above order was that the Yamuna bed was being encroached upon, but the order was selectively directed against the slums while ignoring the elite (but illegal) structures such as the Akshardham temple, the Metro Rail headquarters, and the Commonwealth Games Village.
• The other ground was that the slums were polluting the river. This, again, ignored the available evidence that the total discharge from all slums in Delhi is only 0.33% of the sewage being released into the river.
• There have been four subsequent appeals against this order in both the High Court as well as the Supreme Court and all have been summarily dismissed by the Courts. In not a single case has the Court acknowledged the right to be heard by the slums dwellers as the most affected party.
• In the meantime, demolitions and ruthless evictions of the slums from the banks of the Yamuna have begun and almost 3,000 families have already been displaced. At least 16,000 more families have been targeted for eviction before the elections.
• Of these families, less than half are eligible for "resettlement". The rest are cast out on the streets, while voluntary groups have documented that even those who are resettled have been denied the fundamental Rights to Livelihood, Shelter, Education, and Health.
• · Appeals to the National Human Rights Commission against forcible eviction have been registered in February 2004 and the Commission has issued notice to the government and the police, but no further action has been taken.

1. Due process of law should be followed by the courts to give a fair hearing to the affected parties.
2. Forcible eviction should be immediately stopped.
3. Full resettlement facilities should be made available to all those whose huts have been demolished.
4. The government should fulfill its constitutional responsibilities to provide livelihood, shelter, and services to all the people.