Posted On Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 09:01:41 PM
On Republic Day, hundreds of residents of a legalised slum habitation ‘celebrated’ a missing republic
A little child with a national flag runs gleefully between the hastily constructed stage and the 500-odd people facing it. He is celebrating Republic Day, unaware that his family and close to 300 families, who have gathered here in a ground christened the ‘sangharsh maidaan’ (agitation ground), face the prospect of forcible eviction by the same ‘republic’.
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A woman and a child walk amidst the rubble (Pics: Satyen K Bordoloi) |
Six days before Republic Day, the police came and clashed with the residents of Ganesh Krupa Society, Jawahar Nagar (popular as Golibar), Santacruz (E). They beat up and held many at the station, demolished 19 homes — some fully, some partially — and broke the doors of many homes even while old women bolted them from the inside. These residents face the prospect of many more such police reprisal on the place where some of them had settled over half a century back.
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Republic Day with Medha Patkar (in red, right) |
Despite all these irregularities, instead of ordering an enquiry, the state sent its bulldozers on January 20th. The residents guarded their home fiercely. A scuffle ensued in which many were roughed up and detailed at the Police station along with Medha Patkar. The police broke down 19 homes and confiscated a lot of the people’s belongings.