The government razed the settlement without a survey. There is no record of how many were rendered homeless. The residents are struggling to prove that they existed and were living in Khori Gaon to claim rehabilitation. They have not received any compensation nor were provided temporary shelter. Residents have been left to fend for themselves. Five months after demolition the rehabilitation flats are not liveable.
On 19 November 2021, Team Saathi visited the rehabilitation site to survey the readiness of the flats and found them to be woefully inadequate. There was no water, electricity or sewage facility of any kind. The roads leading to the houses were filled with garbage and dirt. The rooms were dilapidated. Doors & windows were missing. The houses were in no condition to be inhabited and will not be ready for the next several months.
Even after assurances were given by the lawyers representing the state of Haryana that the flats would be made habitable soon, there has been no change. However, a false impression was created in the Supreme Court that the rehabilitation flats were ready. Left with no choice, the residents have to gather proof and reveal the state’s lies. Hence, Team Saathi revisited Dabua Colony on 13 December 2021 to check the condition of the flats.
The rehabilitation flats continue to be unfit for living. The government does not consider the poor as humans. And neither does the bourgeois environmentalists and society ready to sacrifice the poor in the name of forest conservation.
Khori Gaon 