Former Minister of the Madhya Pradesh cabinet and Congress leader PC Sharma complained to the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) on Friday over the removal of encroachments from Bhadbhada slum in Bhopal. Bhopal district administration, along with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), removed the residential structures citing an order from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday.
“Human rights commission has been formed to protect the rights of humans. But human rights have been violated in the Bhadbhada area in the city; public settlements have been bulldozed, and 384 families have been made homeless. Initially, their power connections were cut off, water supply was stopped, rations stopped, and children’s studies are getting affected in the time of exams; all these human rights were violated here. Today, we have complained about the matter to the human rights commission,” Sharma said. People who have been evicted have their ‘land pattas’; also, there is a temple and mosque in the area. First, alternate arrangements are made, and then only settlements are removed, but no arrangements were made in this case. Notices were given, but it was not mentioned at the bottom about whose notices they were. It is completely a dictatorship, the Congress leader alleged.
Earlier, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Anil Shukla during the removal action on Wednesday said, “It was an illegal encroachments removal drive carried out on the instructions of NGT. The occupants were vacating the structures voluntarily, and they were provided support by the administration.” Around 1000 police personnel were deployed during the course of the eviction drive.
Earlier, a Congress leader, Santosh Kansana, also claimed it was an act of “dictatorship of the BMC and the administration.” “This is absolutely an act of dictatorship of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation and the administration. Five years ago, the BMC did the work of setting up sewerage lines and water lines in the same slum locality. If it was illegal, then why did the BMC install the sewerage and water supply lines? People had been living here for 50 years, and they are not even provided with any alternate arrangements,” Kansana said.
“On one hand, the government claims that houses are being given to the poor under PM Awas Yojana, but here the houses of the poor are being razed down. It is clearly an act of dictatorship,” the Congress leader added.
