No receipts or paper trails accompanied the many transactions residents say they were forced to make, and so they cannot be proved.
By Naomi Barton, The Wire
Read the entire article at The Wire.
Excerpt:
“Whatever cream there was to take off the milk they have taken,” says Sushant* (30). “There’s nothing left for them to take anymore, which is why they are evicting us.” The consensus seems to be that the only conceivable reason that the court and state is deciding to take such an active role in dismantling Khori Gaon, is because they have something to gain from it – more than just the conservation of forest land.
“There was no way that the administration did not know and could not see when this Lanka was being made,” Sushant says. “If you go to put a single brick here, the forest department comes and takes a cut…the police come with them… The world would laugh if it heard this. For 40 years, the Supreme Court didn’t notice this?”
The request the residents are making is not for their money to be returned, or for rights to land they have bought – they simply want a place to live. “The state has committed an injustice against the public – in the same newspaper where they say that you should stay at home to stay safe from COVID-19, beneath that they note that 100,000 people are being taken out of their houses.”
Khori Gaon 
You must be logged in to post a comment.