Delhi govt raises Kathputli 'eviction' drive with Centre

The residents of Kathputli colony here are being "forced" to sign eviction slips and they are facing "homelessness", Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain has alleged in a letter to Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu.
Jain's letter comes against the backdrop of Delhi Development Authority's (DDA's) ongoing drive to temporarily shift the residents of the colony to a transit camp for its in-situ redevelopment. He said the residents should be engaged in a dialogue to allay their fears.
"There should be no forced evictions. The unfortunate fact is that the residents are being forced to sign eviction slips. Power and water connections are being cut off and residents are living surrounded by a heavy deployment of armed personnel," he wrote to Naidu.

Jain had visited the colony on December 19, the first day of the drive that had sparked tension in the area. In the letter, he wrote of one girl whose "mentally ill" mother was allegedly forced to sign one such slip on the pretext of a survey.
He said the residents are being told to vacate their houses without prior information as to whether they will be allocated a flat in the redeveloped colony, adding that the project would function smoothly if a dialogue is maintained and legitimate concerns are addressed.
"A survey with the revised cut-off date of January 1, 2015 should be carried out by DUSIB, as per the directions of the High Court. The current cutoff followed by the DDA in this project, that is January 31, 2011, is an arbitrary one and has caused much confusion amongst the residents," said the letter, dated December 22.

In 2009, DDA had signed an agreement with a private developer for "in situ slum development" of the colony spread over 5.2 hectares of land.
The project proposes to resettle the resident families in multi-storey flats and the remaining land would be given for commercial purposes.