Congress leader Ajay Maken moves Supreme Court for rehabilitation of dwellers along rail tracks in Delhi before eviction

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Ajay Maken and others have moved the Supreme Court for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers residing in the 48,000 'jhuggis' alongside railway lines in Delhi.

These shanties were ordered to be demolished by the top court on August 31 within a period of three months in the case of M C Mehta related to Delhi pollution.

In an application, Maken asked the top court to direct the Indian Railways, Delhi government and others to rehabilitate the slum dwellers prior to eviction or demolition of their jhuggis.

He also sought a direction for complying with the provisions of the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 and the protocol (for removal of Jhuggis) in letter and spirit.

Maken said that many of those who have been living over there for 30-40 years would be rendered homeless at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic which may prove to be a recipe for disaster.

On August 31, the court gave a detailed hearing to the Railways, Municipal Corporations, etc who sought to dispossess the slum dwellers. However, the court completely ignored the affected and vulnerable population of slum dwellers by denying them an opportunity of being heard, he said.

Questioning the direction which said no court will grant stay in the demolition process, Maken said this amounted to grave obstruction in the right to access to justice.

With the directions, he said that the casualty would be greater than 48,000 shanties as more than 5,00,000 people, who contributed to the social and economic life of the city by working as sanitation workers, garbage collectors, domestic help, rickshaw pullers, labourers, etc, would be directly affected.

Among the grounds, the applicants said it would be highly risky to demolish the hutments without prior rehabilitation as they will be forced to move from place to place in search of shelter and livelihood.

"Needless, to say that even if a small percentage of the displaced population gets affected by Covid-19, the same will prove to be a recipe for disaster in the current pandemic," the plea said.