Image: Twitter
Disturbing images and heart wrenching videos have emerged from Padshahi Bagh, where residents are claiming that the authorities have been demolishing their homes without providing them with any prior notice. In one of the videos, an elderly woman can be seen pleading and crying for her poor relative’s property not to be ruined. Some claim that the destroyed property is owned and that there are documentation to verify it. Residents reported they had gotten no notification, and the appearance of the bulldozer came as a complete surprise.
Another video shows a man crying and talking to a reporter. Apparently, a non-native, he claimed that he had been living on the property for 20 years and there have never been any problems. He said he received no notification and hence could not have planned an alternative. It wasn’t clear where he belonged right away, he said.
Another distressing image showed two tiny girls crying in a tight embrace near the bulldozers. People could be seen standing in the street, watching the bulldozer destroy their homes. Some of them even claimed that they have genuine documents to prove their ownership. A man in one of the videos said that these bulldozers came as they were leaving for work. He was questioning the move and saying why they were allotted the land if it was illegal to have a house there. He had his property papers in his hand and still his house was being demolished.
The video can be viewed here:
This is from #Srinagar, #JammuAndKashmir.
Locals alleged authorities of demolishing their homes despite having genuine documents & without any notice.
Such demolitions are being carried throughout the state.
Rights defenders have called it a policy of #Kashmiri dispossession. pic.twitter.com/1nDJn1rSAB
— Hate Detector ? (@HateDetectors) February 5, 2023
Such demolitions are being carried throughout the state. Rights defenders have called it a policy of Kashmiri dispossession. These videos came after Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, on January 3, assured that ‘only influential and powerful people who misused their position and violated the law to encroach upon the state land’ would face action under the demolition drives.
As has been provided by the Kashmiri Observer, the residents of Padshahi bagh staged a protest on Saturday morning after the team of revenue officials reached the area to undertake an eviction drive. One of the protested had alleged that the ongoing drive was not affecting rich people but rendering poor masses ‘homeless’.
A rag-picker from West Bengal alleged that the revenue officials without any second thought directed the demolition squad to bring down his temporary residence, leaving his family ‘homeless’, the Kashmiri Observer provided.
Besides Padshahi Bagh land eviction drives were also carried out in Anantnag and Baramulla districts of the Valley as well. As has been provided by Kashmiri Observer, the officials provided that around 409 kanal (1 kanal equals one eighth of an acre) of prime state and Kahcharai land worth over Rs 240.58 crore was reclaimed from the influential land grabbers from all 7 Tehsils, including Eidgah, North Srinagar, Panthachowk, Khanyar, South Srinagar, Central Shalteng and Chanapora.
Related:
Families protest arrests as questions mount on child marriage crackdown in Assam
Why and How the Homes of Tughlaqabad’s Workers Should be Protected from Demolition
20,000 residents of Delhi near Tughlaqabad fort face eviction
Eviction, yet another weaponised tool of the state in New India