Kathputli Colony Residents Fear Forced Eviction as Police Pour In

Slums were supposed to be rebuilt into multi-story buildings. The DDA has sprung into action after a 7-year wait.

(Photo: The Quint)

Delhi police has cordoned off the entire Kathputli Colony area in New Delhi, to facilitate an evacuation of residents. But the residents fear that they will be forcefully evicted, and fear that they will not get their land back once the scheduled redevelopment of the Colony is complete.

Kathputli Colony is located in the Patel Nagar area. Various puppeteers, magicians, dhol artists, etc reside in the colony. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in 2009 signed a Rs 6 crore deal with Raheja Developers to ‘redevelop’ the colony.

Under the project, the slums were supposed to be rebuilt into multi-story buildings. The DDA finally sprung into action after a lengthy gap of 7 years. The authority wants to shift the residents to a transit camp so that they can start construction work. But the residents don’t trust DDA.

Number of Actual Residents and Number That DDA Claims Vary

The DDA’s survey claims that there are 2,641 families living in the colony. However, the residents claim that over 3,500 people reside in the locality. They also said that the DDA is not giving them any written assurances about providing them with new houses once the redevelopment is complete.

Now the question is, will the DDA will provide houses to only the 2,641 families they have recorded? If so, where will the rest of the families go?

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam