Khori Gaon: forceful and unfair eviction during 2020 pandemic

On July 23, five petitions on eviction of jhuggies or a large settlement of informal workers were heard. Supreme Court ordered the eviction of the informal worker settlement in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. The Supreme Court‘s timing for the verdict was very insensitive because, during the pandemic, no one would have supported the evicted informal workers. 

By Aishwarya Ingle, Inventiva

Read the entire article at Inventiva.

Excerpt:

Are there any precedents to Khori Gaon verdict?

The municipal corporation of Faridabad has cleared 150 acres of urban land by forcibly evicting the poor population. The corporation uses forest encroachment and restoration of forest land and ecology to evict dense habitats of cheap homes. Residents of Bastis like khori gaon, and others have tried to reason with the officials by showing them documentation that clearly states they purchased small plots of the public land.

But the officials paid no heed to their request and forcibly threw them out of their only homes. The government also did not bother to check documents and trace who sold public land to illiterate and less educated informal workers. If these documents would have been traced, the officials could have found scamsters and frauds, opening another set of issues.

If the documents were traced, they would point towards politicians and bureaucrats, which would harm the political motives of the ruling party. It is because of this reason that bastis like khori gaon was dismantled in a hurry. To avoid political inconvenience, the documentation was neither accepted nor traced.