By MAITRI PORECHA / The Hindu
Indian Railways’ plan to revamp the rail corridor running across the 12 km Mathura-Vrindavan stretch, with plans to possibly develop a station near Krishna Janmasthan, has led 135 families — mostly Muslim — to become homeless, as their pucca houses were razed to ground ‘to create space’.
After two days of heavy demolition on August 9 and August 14 in Nai Basti, opposite the Hindu holy shrine, the hapless families approached the Supreme Court and were granted a temporary stay. The apex court, which had asked the Central government and the Railways to respond, is expected to hear the matter again on Friday.
Sultana (30) is sitting on a mound of two-storey-high debris, on a wooden cot with a plastic sheet doubling as a roof over her head. She fishes out the papers dating back to 1978, when her father had purchased the plot over which her house stood until August 9, before the bulldozers knocked it down. “We had electricity meters and municipal water supply. What is heartbreaking is before demolishing our house, they did not even let us collect our belongings, everything is buried under the rubble,” she says.
Up to 500 people, including pregnant women, disabled, cardiac patients, and elderly who are sick and ailing, are now camping in tents where their houses once stood. Gola (32), who was suffering from intestinal infection, succumbed two days after her house was brought down on August 14. “This is a house our parents had passed on to us. I run a tyre repair shop and earn not more than ₹400 – ₹500 a day. We lost my sister-in-law, two days after our house was destroyed,” says Saqir (30). Saqir claims that while 88 houses had received notices that they would be brought down, his was not one of them.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here