DDA Bulldozes House of Silkyara Tunnel Rescue Miner Waqeel Hasan!
Nation’s Hero Treated as Criminal in Modi Government’s Bulldozer Regime!
Protest held in Delhi. CPIML Team Meets Waqeel, Extends All Kinds of Support to Waqeel and His Family!
Waqeel Hasan was a part of the team of 12 workers who rescued the 41 entrapped workers in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara Tunnel in November last year. He along with his associates worked tirelessly to save fellow workers who were trapped when the tunnel collapsed. After returning from the rescue operation he said that they took the risk for their fellow workers, it was a duty to the nation that they served.
After three months, the central government agency Delhi Development Authority (DDA) bulldozes the house of the Nation’s Hero in Delhi’s Khajuri Khas.
In protest, trade unions jointly held a demonstration in front of DDA office on 4 March to demand rebuilding of Wakeel Hasan’s house at the same place along with monetary compensation. Protesters also demanded rehabilitation of all evictees of earlier bulldozer demolitions taking place at dozens of other places in Delhi.
On 28 February, a team of DDA and Delhi police reached Waqeel Hasan’s house in the morning. At that time, only the children of the family were present. Despite that, the DDA and Delhi Police continued thrashing his door forcefully. It is to note that all officials forcing the children to open the door were male officials. When Waqeel and his wife returned home and clarified to DDA that they have bought the house and have been staying in the house for more than a decade, Delhi Police arrested Waqeel and his wife and kept them at Khajuri Khas police station. In the meantime, bulldozers ravaged Waqeel’s house to the ground.
A team of CPIML team consisting of Sucheta De (CPIML CC Member), Ramabhilash (CPIML Delhi), Aditya, Vikash (AISA) and Amarjit (AILAJ) visited Khajuri Khas and met Waqeel and his family. They have extended all kinds of support including legal support.
Waqeel was not served any notice before the demolition. DDA and Delhi Police officials acted completely illegally and forcefully bulldozed his house.
The present BJP regime takes pride in its bulldozer governance. We remember how BJP’s MCD Councillors were marking colonies to be bulldozed. We remember Khori Village, Jahangirpuri, Tughlakabad, Gyaspur, Mehrauli, Dhobighat and Priyanka Gandhi Camp and several other areas in Delhi where thousands of people have been made homeless within one day. Their lifelong investment in the form of their houses were destroyed forcefully. The present law in Delhi prohibits any demolition without prior notice. The DDA almost never bothers to give notice before demolition. The government is mandated to provide rehabilitation. In the case of Waqeel Hasan, the entire demolition was a criminal act performed by DDA and Delhi Police.
CPIML condemns the demolition of Waqeel Hasan’s house in strongest possible words. We demand that the officials guilty of demolishing Waqeel Hasan’s house must be punished. Proper compensation that includes the loss due to demolition of houses must be ensured by the central government. The party has urged all sections of the society to unite against the bulldozer governance by the central government.
It is a shame that be it Dr Kafeel Khan, the women wrestlers or the rescue miners, today’s government targets our nation’s glories.
The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Federations/Associations denounced vociferously the demolition of the residence of Vakil Hasan in the Sri Ram Colony, Khajoori Khas, North-East area of Delhi through bulldozer operation on 28th February, 2024 in broad daylight, at the direction of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on the ground of the so-called unauthorised occupation.
It is shocking to note that among the more than two lakh people residing in that area, only Vakil Hasan’s residence was singled out for demolition, that too, without serving any advance notice by the DDA, being run by the Central Govt with the Lieutenant Governor as its Chairman. The Joint Platform of CTUs while condemning such unjust and cruel bulldozer-happy misdeed by the DDA and the Central Govt for uprooting the poor working people from their residence, demands upon the Central Govt, the DDA and the LG, who is also the Chairman of DDA, to explain in public domain the reason and the purpose behind such singularly targeted and vindictive uprooting operation against Vakil Hasan, throwing him out on the road along with his family and also to fix the accountability of such cruel inhuman operation.
