With their belongings scattered all around, more than 50 Dalit families have been sitting in dharna near the debris of their demolished houses, while police personnel maintain a vigil.

``We have been living in this basti for more than 40 years and have been allotted house numbers by the Municipal Committee. We even have regular electricity connections,'' says Amrik Singh, a resident. ``Two days before polling, Akali candidate Sukhbir Singh Badal came to our basti and promised to regularise our possession, if we voted for him. But after the polling, with local Akali leadersconvinced that the residents voted for the Congress candidate, the punishment was swift.''

Sukhbir Singh Badal, when contacted, says he was not aware of the basti being razed.

``On the evening of September 17, heavy police force and Municipal officials with bulldozers and tractor-trollies, led by Akali leader and MC chief Gurtej Singh Gill, descended on the basti and ordered the inhabitants to vacate their houses. The police and municipal employees started pulling down the houses,'' says Nasib Kaur, who shifted her two buffaloes and some belongings to a nearby temple.

Though MC officials say the houses had been constructed on encroached Government land, Nasib Kaur shows receipts of payment of house tax levied by the Municipal Committee. She says her family has been living in the basti for the past 30 years.

MC president Gurtej Singh Gill says the issue is being given a political colour. He says the land on which the houses were built was encroached upon and the clean-up operationhad been carried out on the directions of the district administration. When asked why no eviction notice was given to the residents, Gill says that this was done to avoid legal hindrances.