Homeless overnight, Yamuna Bazar residents stare at steep rents, unsafe shelters

Several families in the city's Yamuna Bazar area are torn between paying steep rents for a roof over their heads or moving into "unsafe" shelter homes after they were left homeless in a demolition drive. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demolished several houses it found illegal in the Yamuna Bazar area near Kashmere Gate. The authority said it had issued notices asking residents living in settlements between Ghat Nos 2 and 32 to vacate the protected Yamuna floodplain. Carrying whatever belongings they could salvage, residents were seen leaving the area amid uncertainty over where they would move next. Some of them alleged that authorities did not let trucks or tempos enter the area to transport their belongings.

Nagendra Mishra, a light technician in his 40s who works near Kashmere Gate and has lived in the area for nearly two decades, said his family does not want to move into a shelter home. "I have a family of eight people. They have asked us to shift to different night shelters. Those facilities are not safe for us. Our daughters don't feel safe there," Mishra said. Some sobbed while others bottled their emotions as they sat before their rubble-reduced houses. "We had a three-room house here. Now to find the same size space is going to cost us at least Rs 12,000-15,000 in the nearby areas, which are really congested," Mishra said, adding that the heat has made the situation worse. Among those rendered homeless was Navin Bhandari, 50, whose father, Ram Chandra Bhandari, now in his 80s, had moved to the banks of the Yamuna from Bihar more than six decades ago. "My father came here when he was in his early twenties. My elder brother's family, my family and our parents have lived here for decades, now suddenly authorities have come and demolished the entire neighbourhood," Bhandari said.

A temple nearby where he used to work was also razed, he said. Muskan, a third-year BA student who lives with her maternal uncle and aunt, feared her studies may now end. "I lost my mother years ago, and then my father left. I have lived my whole life with my uncle and aunt. They have nurtured me. Now I will start looking for a job since I can't be a burden on them, and the rent is going to affect us all," she said. Muskan said she is currently an intern at a Chartered Accountant firm in East Delhi, and plans to find a full-time job. According to the residents, at least 310 homes were demolished, rendering at least 1,100 people homeless. On June 23, the DDA issued fresh notices asking residents to vacate the "illegal" settlements voluntarily. The area comes under the Yamuna's O-Zone, a protected no-construction floodplain, according to the DDA.