Circa 1921, a cluster of families who lived in the area now occupied by the New Delhi Railway Station were asked to vacate their premises as the land was earmarked for the construction of the new railway station. Residents of the area were given plots on a three-year lease, with a provision for year on year extension, at Multani Dhanda in Paharganj. Seventy-eight years later, the original lessees are long gone but their families, who continue to live in Multani Dhanda, are awaiting some sort of decision on the matter by the powers that be.

“The DDA, now the custodian of these properties, continued collecting rent from us till 1952, following which they abruptly stopped for reasons best known to them. Since then, the DDA has passed 13 different resolutions on the matter. Sometimes they increased the ground rent, at other times they insisted that we pay the damage charges. Their latest take on the matter is that we are unauthorised occupants,” said 50-year-old Ved Prakash, who is at the forefront of the battle being waged by the Multani Dhanda Paharganj Property Owners’ Welfare Association.

The DDA has been sending residents of the area notices saying that unless they pay damage charges, different in each case, but ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, they will have to face eviction on grounds of illegally occupying the said premises. In a meeting held in July, Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna told the DDA to stop sending out any such notices to the residents of Multani Dhanda and instead work on a policy paper to resolve the issue.

... contd.