By Uthara U.R. and Ishita Yadav

In the early morning of December 10, bulldozers and labourers moved into a settlement along Mohan Road, on the southern fringe of Lucknow. Men in uniforms stood at the edges of plots where families had lived and built for years.

By mid-morning, boundary walls were broken, gates pulled down, and trees cut. In some places, entire homes were levelled. Across this stretch of land, residents were left with piles of bricks and open yards.

For people like 53-year-old Aruna Singh, the drive did not feel like an “anti-encroachment exercise” as described by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA). “People here bought land legally, completed registrations at the sub-registrar’s office, and lived with tax receipts and years of work. We did not get individual written notices before the demolition began,” she said. She is one of six petitioners in a writ petition pending before the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench.

Geeta Devi, another resident in her late 40s and one of the petitioners who runs a paan shop, spoke about the stress the situation has caused. “How can we be illegal? We have done the registry.” She added that she has lost faith in the courts and said, “We don’t understand where we should go.”

What is the Anant Nagar Housing Scheme?

The Anant Nagar Housing Scheme is a sprawling township project being developed by the Lucknow Development Authority along Mohan Road, on the western edge of Lucknow.

Officially, the scheme covers nearly 800 acres of land acquired from several villages. It was announced as part of the city’s planned expansion, with the aim of easing housing shortages for economically weaker sections, lower-income and middle-income groups. The LDA describes the project as a way to bring wide roads, parks, civic infrastructure, and orderly layouts to an area once on the city’s edge.

Plot allotments and registrations were carried out in phases over the years. Even as the project moved forward, there were disputes over land acquisition and possession that found their way into court.

This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.