On the eve of the 122nd formation day of the Congress party, the government coming to power in the names of the poor and the dalits-marginalized, demolished Bhimrao Bada an 80 years old (4 generations) a slum community.

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As the name suggests, the Basti named after Bhimrao alias Babasaheb Ambedkar faced the brutal attack apparently for the plans to expand or rebuild Ghandi Bhavan, this time in remembrance of not Mahatma but Indira!

The demolition that took place at 4 am with a 'sena' of bull dozers, and a huge (hundreds, strong police force) was surprisingly just the day when Rashtrapatiji Pratibha Patil was here! Is the timing deliberately chosen? If not anything else, the early warning time when it was still dark was, for sure to avoid people's resistance.

Since, right now the Courts would remain closed till end of the year 2008! In the process there was no notice issued and if at all, the government could only claim of warning the residents only on the basis of notices issued months before but not 24 hours before, as is required to be done!

The bulldozing of this 80 years old community with pukka houses, built with the sweat and blood of the families of men and women in unprotected work, many of the families being single- widow headed was no doubt brutal. Force was used by male and female police who pulled the hair, lifted persons, even lathi charged but without leaving a wound to leak! Many of the hard earned belongings of the working class families were broken or destroyed. Many of the families belonging to the Gangapurtra clan were originally fish workers but now engaged in various other forms of unprotected work.

The children, women and the aged, all were arrested for peaceful protest. When the brother of Chiranjivi, the nearly emerged political 'actor' was also arrested while standing by the screaming people, politicians came in with a competitive yet supportive spirit and none else but Chandra Babu Naidu along with CPI (M) leaders too courted arrested. The activists of people's organisations, Sister Selvin, Ashfaqullah & Bilal of CHATRI were spared, but targeted for entering the land full of rubble.

The scene of demolition which has no place in the national slum policy which speaks mainly of regularisation, improvement and development of urban slums was no doubt violation of human rights but also a blatant legal violation. First and the fore most, this 'notified' i.e regularised slum that was suddenly de-notified in April was knowingly to give way to the Congress Party use the land to build its new office- 'Indira Bhawan', close to the present one, Gandhi Bhawan. The land in possession of the 95 families on which many a civic amenities were also provided with lakhs of rupees worth expenditure, by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, was to be transferred not for a public purpose but for party's political purpose- which is obviously a fraud.

The basic issue here is one of right to the land on which a poor locality exists. While the corporates are getting lands leased out at throw away prices, the urban poor do not have any right, not even usufructory right to the land under their habitats since generations. It, therefore becomes easy to evict the community even without its consent and force' unwilling 'rehabilitation' on to them. The claim made in the case of Bhimraowada by State government of AP has been that the houses for them are ready at Dhobighat area, 3 to 4 kms away. The families evicted are, therefore, dumped forcibly into the new buildings with the remaining belongings by the police and authorities.

When we visited this resettlement site this morning at around 7.30 am, we found the women and youth to be furious about the forcible eviction and the brutality of the police authorities. The officials present were only of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad who had this excuse to say that they were there to provide civic amenities and had nothing to do with eviction. The people were however questioning them and calling them a part and parcel of the State. The houses were not acceptable to the families for more than one reason. First and foremost those are far away from their earlier place of residence especially for toiling women. Secondly, out of 95 families at Bhimrao wada, about 20 are left out of the list unilaterally prepared by the Govt authorities. We found out that one or two members of larger families were left out and hence the grievance. There were even widows who were excluded and the same was found to be very painful and unacceptable.

These poor families living on hand to mouth existence found that the new houses were almost the same size of their earlier ones and found no reason for their displacement, even while the right to land was not recognised. Why could not they be rehabilitated there only as they were promised at various times earlier and also during the dialogue that was brokered by the local MLA is a question that remains unanswered?

It is obvious to us that the land grab the Congress Party was related to the fact that the Bhimrao Wada was located in an elite area while they are now dumped in ''garib nagar" a vast area with many kinds of unprotected workers residing. We also found that the land under the new buildings indeed belonged to two communities of fishermen and washermen, the fight amongst themselves over the right to land which happened to be a graveyard (the remnants we could even see today) has gone to the court although, we are yet to see the papers which, we are told, include a contempt petition. The resettlement offered to the evicted families cannot, therefore, be accepted in this form and unless the land rights issues are resolved and the people of Bhimrao wada find it to be acceptable.

The slogan of the people her, as elsewhere, is "Let us live where we were". The political parties having joined the struggle, even if with the upcoming elections in mind, has no doubt helped the people, while the Congress has given them an opportunity which can be considered as most unstrategic, with TDP declaring a state wide protest day. We, the people's organisations, with CHATRI our ally in Hyderabad working with Bhim Rao wada and other bastis have to prepare ourselves to prevent the divide and rule politics and ensure that politicisation of such issues do not lead to further betrayal. Kumarayyia the local leader, with Rukmini and other women leaders are up against state atrocities and for their right to livelihood and shelter both.

Let no Bhawan in the name of Gandhi, Bhimrao or Nehru become a cause of deprivation and engine of destitution for the poor that continues to be part of the urban development and is protested and challenged to by in every city and town.

Do raise your voice against this injustice and make your protest known to the authorities:

Fax/E-mail your letters

Ø     Dr.Buta Singh, Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes

Fax: 011- 24632298; E-mail: chairman-ncsc@nic.in

Ø     Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission

Fax: 011-23384863; E-mail: chairnhrc@nic.in

Shri Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy, Chief Minister. Andhra Pradesh

Fax: 040-O23452498, 23454828 (Res) 23410555 ; E-mail:  cmap@ap.gov.in

Ø     Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, Indian National Congress

Fax: 011- 23018651; E-mail: soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in

Ø     Chairman, Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission 

Fax: 040-24601573; E-mail: aphumanrights@ap.nic.in

Medha Patkar                                                            Ramakrishnam Raju,

National Convenor, NAPM                                    Convenor, Andhra Pradesh (NAPM)

Sister Selivin and Ashwaq bhai                           Bilal bhai

Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights             Human Rights Forum