Govt relocated them, now it wants to evict 41 Dalit families from their PMAY homes in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur: Report

Forty-one families residing in Indranagar Colony in Harpur, Uttar Pradesh have received a notice from the Municipal Council which states that they are living there illegally. These families, mainly belonging to the Dalit community, have lived in the area since 1986.

Forty of the 41 houses were built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) as per a report by The Indian Express.

PMAY was launched in 2016 with the objective to provide “housing for all” by 2022. The scheme for supporting the construction of houses in rural areas is called Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G) while for the urban areas, it is referred to as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U).

The notice issued on April 8 states that the land on which the houses are built belong to the government and it used to be a pond.

The notice which was issued by an advocate on behalf of the Garhmukteshwar Municipal Council’s Executive Officer Mukta Singh read, “You have illegally occupied the land of the Nagar Palika and built a house on it and you do not want to remove it and therefore, it is important to initiate legal proceedings against you. Within 15 days of receiving this notice, remove your occupancy on the land and submit the land to Nagar Palika or else you will be responsible for the case against you.”

The notice also alleges that the residents had been warned a number of times orally but "because of their ego" they have not heeded to the Municipal Council's orders.

“Municipal officials have told you orally several times to vacate the land but you refuse to vacate the land without following statutory provisions. And in your ego (‘apni hekdi ke bal par’), you say the said land has been given to us in the land records and that the government has given us the records. On the said land, there exists no records of any residential plots, and in any case, if the land records have been created in the name of anyone, it has been cancelled.”

Prerna Sharma, District Magistrate talking to the publication said, “We are looking into this matter. It was brought to our notice on Tuesday. If the claims of the people are correct, we will investigate. We do not check the authenticity of land deeds under PMAY, we only check if the person is a rightful owner according to the deed. We need to check the claims.”

However, when asked about the tone and language used in the notice, the officials declined to comment.

Several residents, after receiving the notice, met the Executive Officer.

Fifty-eight-year-old Gangaram according to the report said, “I have only studied till Class 4, and can only read my name. The others in the colony explained to me that they want me to vacate my home… The officials told us that our colony is illegal. They told us to file a petition in court. We are poor, we can only complain.”

He further said that under the PMAY, he received three installments after first COVID-19 lockdown - Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 each in the next to installments. He additionally used Rs 1.5 lakh from his savings to complete the construction of the house.

The residents said they were relocated to the area from Chupla in Garmukteshwar which was part of the Ghaziabad district in 1986.

The notice which was issued at that time states, “For the purpose of rehabilitation, considering the collective application letter, we have decided that 100 gaj of land be given to you so that the problem of rehabilitation is solved. You will not have the right to sell and transfer the land. The land will be used by you and your family members for residential purposes.”

Gangaram said that when they moved there was a dried pond, however, Nagar Palika officials filled it and helped them move there.

Another resident, Kamala said "They (officials) told us that they had done what they had to, and now it was up to us to do what we can… We cannot sleep, we have used all the money we had saved to build our homes. Where will we go now?”