We, the residents of Fakrulmulk Devdi (FM Devdi), a notified slum at Mandi Mir Alam, wish to bring to your notice a serious issue of concern in our basti.
Our basti consists of about 30 families, most of them belonging to scheduled castes. A few of us belong to Muslim community. However, all of us are working class people, with very low incomes and high vulnerability.
We used to have public toilets (16 latrines and two bathrooms) on a piece of government land in our basti. They were built in 1960. A few months back, a well-to-do family headed by one Osman Mia (proprietor of Sagar Hotel at Patthergatti) in our neighbourhood, demolished these public toilets and occupied this piece of land adjacent to their own house. He has even laid the foundation and erected pillars to construct a building on this site. But he is claiming that it is MCH which is constructing a gym there. The fencing for the land was made by MCH. However we feel that MCH officials may be working hand in glove with the land grabber. When we tried to resist this attempt, he has been threatening us with dire consequences. We also complained to MCH, but no action was taken. We are now using pay-toilets in Mir Alam mandi.
One local leader by name Baba alias Muneer came to our support and filed a petition in court against the landgrabber. A few days back Muneer died of heart attack and his children are claiming that they do not have any papers pertaining to the petition. Our corporator, Ahmed Balala, came to our support and quarreled with the landgrabber. Nothing resulted from his intervention either.
The landgrabber’s family has been buying property aggressively in our vicinities. Earlier they have attempted to occupy even our community hall. We are living under constant fear of their assault.
We also fear that in terms of communal tensions, this basti can be the most sensitive and vulnerable. The landgrabbers may utilize any opportunity of distancing the two peace-loving communities here so as to occupy the basti.
- Uma Maheshwari, Vice President, Jeevan Jyothi Mahila Mandali, and Residents of FM Devdi
1 comment:
The 'landgrabber' has systematically 'grabbed' the land. He actually bought it from MCH. How he could do that is a different question. When he started construction on the site in question (where the public toilets used to be), the MRO refused to issue the NOC. The land grabber approached the high court, who gave an order in his favour, asking the MRO to shut up. He has no problem whatever in using the land as he likes. What will the poor people do. Pay, shit and watch!
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