By Ketki Pathak
On the morning of June 25, government authorities demolished a residential area in the small colony of Pochanpur, located in Dwarka, southwest Delhi. This colony is home to over 500 migrant workers, primarily from the Bengali-speaking community.
The residents received the demolition notice on June 10 to vacate the land, following which they were reassured by their so-called “landlord”/“contractor” that they had nothing to worry about and that the matter had been taken care of.
Most of the former residents of this colony are migrant labourers who do not have secure, regular, and permanent employment.
A former resident, already poor and now helpless, stood there looking at the rubble as her children nearby collected scraps of metal to sell.
“They gave the first notice two weeks ago. The SDM sir came and warned us to leave or else they would soon come with bulldozers to demolish everything. The landlord said not to worry, he said he had taken care of it and dealt with the authorities, but police and government officials came with the notice multiple times thereafter, so we did not trust the landlord,” she said.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
