As many as 350 families of Bakramandi settlement in New Ranip, who were served eviction notice for allegedly encroaching government land, on Thursday submitted their objection to the notice at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) West Zone office in Usmanpura.
On April 29 this year, the AMC served notices to 350 families in the Bakramandi settlement, claiming that they have been encroaching on reserved government land under the Town Planning (TP) project.
As per the notice, The Indian Express has learned, the families have been asked to remove “encroachment” on their own within 10 days of receiving the notice or else anti-encroachment action by the AMC. According to the AMC, the 350 houses fall on the main road as per TP project in New Ranip. The families were also given seven days to submit their objections to the notice if they had any.
The Bakramandi settlement consists of over 800 houses with a population of over 4,000 comprising mainly Muslims and Thakor, Dalits and Devipujak communities among Hindus. The residents are usually engaged in livestock trading, meat selling and daily wage jobs.
Some of the residents of Bakramandi settlement who assembled at the AMC West Zone office to submit their objections said that they have been rightful owners of their houses for the past four to five decades.
“Me and my late husband had constructed our house some 40 years ago and we have all the documents. Now that my husband has gone, the house became my saviour as it supported me in bringing up my six children. Now at the age of 60, I have nowhere to go,” said Seetaben Rawal, a resident of Bakramandi.
“This house was constructed almost 50-60 years ago by my father-in-law… The government says that they will rehabilitate us once we are evicted out of our homes but we say that settle us first in new homes and then you can demolish ours,” said Shamshunisha Pathan (40), who works at a shopping mart in Ranip.
Speaking to The Indian Express, advocate Shamshad Pathan said, “On one hand, the government is happily leasing out land to land mafia and industrialists while on the other, they target poor people in slums over encroachment. This bulldozer politics should end. Today, we have managed to submit 280 applications out of 350 and the remaining will be done by Friday.
A senior official of AMC West Zone said on condition of anonymity, “The ones who have been served notice are given an opportunity to present their objection. Now a review will be done of their objection and then a decision will be taken.”
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