Chandigarh: Week after demolition, Adarsh Colony residents have nowhere to go
A week after the demolition of Adarsh Colony in Sector 54 by the UT Administration, Urmila Devi and Upendra Paswan are among the uprooted residents who spend their nights in temporary shelters or under the open sky, while the mornings go in looking for work and narrating their ordeal to anyone willing to listen.
As part of the push for a “slum-free” Chandigarh, the constructions in Adarsh Colony were razed to the ground on June 19 and the site cleared of “illegal occupation of government property”, as the officials put it.
The demolition followed the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s rejection of a petition filed on behalf of the residents. The Bench stated: “The unauthorised occupation is to be utilised for developing public utility infrastructure in alignment with the Chandigarh Master Plan”.
Earlier, 17 such colonies were demolished in the UT. Only one, Shahpur Colony in Sector 38, remains. There have been rehabilitation efforts, but not in the case of Adarsh Colony residents.
Urmila Devi, a homemaker, claims they were not given any time to relocate. “Just days before the demolition, we were told the land would be cleared. How are we supposed to leave suddenly, with no place to go? We went looking for places to rent out, but the owners are reluctant to take us in and anyway the rents are way beyond our paying capacity.”
Upendra Paswan, a tailor, flashes his Aadhaar card and even a voter-ID card to prove that he was a bona fide resident of Adarsh Colony. “These documents must be worth something; after all, they show our address. Suddenly, we are homeless. No rehabilitation, nothing. Are we important only during the elections?”
asks Ashok Paswan, a labourer, while claiming that he had been living in the colony for more than 35 years. “After the demolition, most residents are now looking for rental options around the city. However, a monthly rent of Rs 5,000-8,000 is something we simply cannot afford. Therefore, many have gone back to their home states,” he said.
Vishal, too, joins in: “The administration had provided us with electricity and public toilets. We have all the documents, yet no biometric survey was conducted for us. Now, without offering any proper rehabilitation plan, the administration has evicted us using force.”
According to the Chandigarh Small Flats Scheme, 2006, a person whose name appears in the biometric survey and voter list as on January 1, 2006, as well as the latest voter list shall be considered for rehabilitation. “So, why was the biometric survey not conducted by the Estate Office for us?” asks Vishal.
The colony was named Adarsh if you didn’t care to notice, Urmila Devi points out. “Not that we ever had much to call our own, but being simply abandoned is dishonourable. No one deserves it.”
No rehabilitation plan: DC
On the rehabilitation of Adarsh Colony residents, Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav said, “Land in Chandigarh has become limited, due to which the government has no such plan of any further rehabilitation.” On the exclusion of Adarsh Colony from the Chandigarh Small Flat Scheme, 2006, Yadav said, “The size of the colony might not have been that large, due to which no biometric survey was conducted in this place. Otherwise, why would any decision-maker leave this colony and do the same survey for the other 18?”
Chandigarh