Move to plots you bought,UP begins clearing riot camps

At another camp set up in a graveyard in Sanjhak village,where people had blocked Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s cavalcade when he visited last week,the UP government Friday slapped charges of encroachment and damage to public property on 28 families,with authorities saying people living there were not “real riot victims”.

Ruksana,26,a resident of Fugana,was making tea for her three children at the Loi camp at around 7 am while the children,aged between one and three years,slept inside the shack that has been home for the last four months,when the Loi pradhan and SDM of the area came with the JCB excavator and asked them to pack up and leave immediately.

Ruksana,whose four-year-old son died due to the cold conditions in the camp two weeks back,said she cannot do anything for her other children who are now without a roof.

“My father-in-law has got the government compensation of Rs 5 lakh and has left the camp. My husband has three brothers,all have their separate families and none of them have got any financial help. I have lost one son,now the government is throwing my other three out in the cold,where do I go?” she asked as she gathered her utensils and a few blankets lying amid the mud and brick remains of her shack.

Many others whose shacks were razed on Friday said they were yet to start building houses on plots they bought barely two weeks back.

Haseena,65,also from Fugana village,put her shack up three times between 8 am and 5 pm Friday,gathering her stuff together every time it was brought down by the excavator.

After the hut was brought down a fourth time,she said she had given up hope.

“My husband did purchase a plot across the road from the compensation he got,but he has gone to find work in brick kilns around. Where do I spend the night today? There is a plot but no house there…we have no money to build a house yet,what do I do?” she asked.

People living in the camps accused leaders of Loi village of “echoing” the district authorities. “The village pradhan who promised us help is now asking us to leave immediately and move,” said Shabana,a mother of five whose dwelling was razed and was in tears.

In Sanjhak village in Muzaffarnagar,people said they had got no help since government rations were withdrawn at the end of September.

“We were forced to set up a camp with help from locals here on a graveyard… There is no food or warm clothes from the state and now they have made us criminals by slapping charges on us. The government says we are pawns. Does anybody stay in a graveyard out of choice?” asked Nishu Mohammad from Kharad village.

People say not just the UP administration but even Rahul Gandhi did not keep his promise to help.

“When he had come here he gave us contacts of people from his office who he said would visit us by December 26. We are still waiting for them,” said Arshad Hassan,another resident of Sanjhak camp.

District authorities said 37 families had been asked to vacate the Loi camp in the last few days.

On Friday,however,17 shelters were razed for the first time. Muzaffarnagar ADM Indermani Tripathi said the families had all bought plots and were being asked to relocate to “safer areas” as mandated in the government affidavit for compensation.

“The camp was set up on forest land and local leaders had razed the forest cover and transferred fresh soil to level the land. Now,since these families have got the money and bought land in adjoining sugar cane fields,we are taking the help of leaders to transfer this fresh soil from the camp site to sugar cane fields opposite where the plots have been purchased so people can build their huts there until their homes are built,” Tripathi said.

The government,he said,had a week back issued notices to families who were asked to move,reminding them of the terms of the affidavit and giving them “due time” to vacate.

Abdul Jabbar,the Loi pradhan,said people should keep their word.

“I have sold 100 acres of my plot to these people and they bought it with the compensation money. I have been telling people they are free to move to village houses till their homes are built to escape the cold,but they should leave the government forest land as they promised in the affidavits they signed,” Jabbar said.

To “incentivise” evictions,the UP government has also promised kits with eight days of rations to families who agree to vacate the camps. But authorities admit that not one of the 37 who have left have got these kits.

“Eighteen kits are in the camp office. We have ordered 400 more kits to incentivise people to leave and also help them in the first days of their new lives. The evictions were very haphazard in the first few days,we will try to trace these people and give supplies to all families who leave now,” Tripathi said.

The government was also conducting fresh surveys in affected villages to identify families who had not got compensation yet,he said.

He said the state had filed an FIR against those living in the Sanjhak camp as they had started “occupying the graveyard” after Rahul Gandhi’s visit.

“The families are from Kinoni village where there were no incidents of riots,they are not real riot victims. They illegally occupied the area when they learnt of Rahul Gandhi’s visit,so the government has filed an FIR against residents,nobody stays in the jhuggis there anyway,” Tripathi said.