Waterlogged Slum Dwellers Forcibly Evicted, Huts Demolished in Patna

Patna: In what is being termed as insensitive, the authorities of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) have forcibly evicted poor people from at least two waterlogged slums in the city instead of providing them relief. As a result, all of these slumdwellers are now  homeless and have been forced to take temporary shelter on nearby roads ,either under makeshift plastic tents or under the open sky.

The PMC officials not only evicted these poor people but also demolished their huts following waterlogging due to heavy rainfall last week.

At a time when normal life is badly hit, the residents of these slums, most of whom are the  poorest of poor and are fighting for survival after their marooned and damaged huts faced an onslaught by security forces, JCB machines and PMC officials, who grabbed this ‘opportunity’ to complete an anti-encroachment drive for the smart city project.

Nearly 200 families of a big slum behind Haj Bhawan here was evicted by the PMC on October 1 ignoring repeated pleas by the people to spare them for a few days as they were victims of waterlogging whose lives had been thrown out of gear. But, PMC officials went ahead and bulldozed their huts and damaged many of their essential items.

Khushboo Devi, Kamal Paswan, Jeetu Manjhi and Umesh Prasad, all residents of the slum near the posh Harding Road, are now cursing their fate. “No one listened to us. We wanted to a few days’ time to shift to another place. There is no move to rehabilitate us. The PMC team ordered demolition of our huts ignoring our suffering,” Umesh Prasad, a resident of slum behind Hah Bhawan, whose hut was demolished on October 1,  told NewsClick.

Kamal Paswan said even after Patna was badly affected by the worst ever waterlogging, PMC officials were hell bent on going ahead with their anti-encroachment drive. ”First the heavy rainfall for 60 hours bring miseries to us,  followed by waterlogging, then what shocked us more was that we were forcibly evicted because we are poor.”.

Both Umesh and Kamal said they had settled in this slum after they were evicted from a nearby area that was turned into an eco-park now. ”Now where  do we go from here”, they helplessly asked.

Similarly, nearly 100 poor families were forcibly evicted from a slum near Buddha Colony and their huts were demolished on September 30. ”All of us have been  rendered homeless after waterlogging badly affected us. But who cares for the poor living in slums, ”Kalu Ram, whose slum was demolished, told NewsClick.

Rupesh, who runs Koshish Charitable Trust, told NewsClick that it was against the law of the land to evict poor waterlogged victims who were struggling to survive, instead of providing them relief, if not rescuing them. ”It is a clear cut anti-poor move of the Patna administration during the time of crisis,” he added.

The trust, which works among slums residents here, demanded that the Bihar government should take a humanitarian view and rehabilitate the evicted people.

Saurav Kumar, who works with Action Aid, said, “There is no relief for them, they are at God’s mercy, living on the roads now“.

Ironically, the entire focus of the Nitish Kumar government and others, including some NGOs, is on waterlogged posh residential localities and colonies.