JOIN USThe land for a house granted to five siblings, who were found living in a graveyard, cannot be handed over to them as there is a stay order against its transfer, one of the children has said.
Irfan, one of the siblings, said the problem over the plot of land had forced the children to return to their earlier shelter. The children, whose parents lost their lives to AIDS, had earlier taken shelter at the graveyard after being ostracised by their kin over fears that they too might have AIDS.
Irfan said that they were given a housing lease on a plot of land in Jamua village on directions from District Magistrate Vidya Bhushan. But when he went to take possession of the plot, he was prevented from doing so by one Sarvesh Tiwari who claimed that it was disputed property.
The homeless child said that Sarvesh owned a plot adjacent to the one allotted to them and was involved in a legal battle over it with a man named Sajjad. Tiwari had told him that the court had issued a stay order on the property. Meanwhile, the siblings have rejected an alternative plot near a school here, saying that there was a ditch at the site which would make construction difficult.
Faced with the matter, Irfan said that unless the district administration quickly gave them possession of the land, the siblings would have no option but to continue at their graveyard dwelling.
Four brothers and their sister, aged between seven and 17, had been living at the graveyard in Lamuha village in the Mandhata area for the past three years. Left without shelter after their parents’ death, they lived by their graves, using just a tarpaulin sheet to protect themselves.