Girl attempts suicide over demolition in Bahadurgarh

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, April 17

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) today razed several illegal structures in Sant Ravi Dass Colony near Sector 9 in Bahadurgarh town, rendering many Scheduled Castes (SCs) families homeless.

A girl from one of the families also attempted suicide in protest against the move. She was taken to the Bahadurgarh Civil Hospital, where her condition is stated to be out of danger.

The affected families said they had been residing here for over three decades. They had even filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had fixed May 18 as the next date of hearing into the matter, but HUDA demolished their houses without ensuring their rehabilitation.

Sources in HUDA said the families had occupied the land illegally. The land was now part of the metro yard and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) staff quarters’ campus, hence the occupants served notices asking them to remove the illegal encroachment on their own by April 11, but they paid no heed to the notices, they said. A team of HUDA, Metro officials and the police reached the spot in the afternoon and started demolishing the houses using JCB machines. When some women resisted the demolition, they were taken in custody by women cops.

Vijay Rathi, HUDA estate officer at Bahadurgarh, said since the work of the Metro yard and DMRC staff quarters was affected due to the illegal encroachment on the HUDA land, getting the land vacated had become imperative. “We have offered them flats under the Ashiana Scheme, but no one has come forward to give consent yet,” said Rathi.