Shock, dismay as houses reduced to dust in Jalandhar's Latifpura

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, December 9

Eight-year-old Dashvik, went to school this morning and came home to see his dwelling reduced to rubble in the Latifpura area. Since then he is in a state of deep shock, having not been able to take any meal till this late evening.

Everything has fallen apart

Our families had been living here since 1947. We all came from Pakistan during the Partition and settled here. For 75 years, we had never thought that we would have to evict these houses. But everything has now fallen apart. — Ajaib Singh, latifpura resident

BJP, gurdwara arrange langar

• Coming as a major relief for the 50 families who lost their dwellings in Jalandhar, the BJP and members of Gurdwara Nauvi Patshahi, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, organised langar late Friday
• The langar was brought in a vehicle and served by BJP former district president Ramesh Sharma, Subhash Bhagat and sewadars from the gurdwara at the site. Men, women and children hadn’t had any meal since morning until langar finally arrived for them

With no arrangement for shelter on this cold winter night, his mother Amanjot Kaur has been arranging for some twigs and dry wood so that she could light them up and give some warmth to her son. “Dashvik’s exams are underway, but we do not think that he will be able to appear from tomorrow onwards. I don’t even know how we will run the house now. Even if we rent a two-room house nearby, the cost of rent is not less than Rs 10,000 and I do not think, we can not bear that much extra expenses,” says Amanjot, Dashvik’s mother.

There are at least 50 more families, who have lost their houses in a demolition drive, carried out by Jalandhar Improvement Trust. These families mostly engaged in selling milk, weaving quilts, stitching clothes and repairing sofas, are in a same state of dilemma as Amanjot.

“Our families had been occupying these houses since 1947, as they all came from Pakistan during the partition and settled here. While initially they all had started dairies here but as the Municipal Corporation got the animals shifted out to Jamsher dairy complex, some of us had to change our occupations. We all have voter ID cards, Aadhar cards, electricity connections, water supply connections and all other IDs. For 75 years, we had never thought that we would have to evict these houses and many of us had spent lakhs on their repair and renovations, but everything has now fallen apart,” says Ajaib SIngh, whose house was demolished today. While a few families took away their belongings to nearby accommodations of their kith and kin, others who had no such option stayed back light up small fires along their cots, chairs and other belongings.

Over 700 cops were deployed since late last night and the demolition began early this morning. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jaskaranjit S Teja, too, faced a tough time leading his team amidst strong retaliation from the encroachers. Several attempts to remove the encroachments in the past could not yield results owing to stiff resistance by encroachers. A major action planned by the authorities in January 2019 had also failed.

The occupants had exhausted all their chances to occupy the land, having lost the legal battle in the Supreme Court way back in 2012. Fresh eviction notices were issued by the JIT last month after a petition was filed in the High Court over orders not being executed.

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