Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
CRITICISING THE demolition of some houses by local authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj in 2021 as “inhuman and illegal”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the “high-handed” manner in which this was done “shocks our conscience”.
It directed the Prayagraj Development Authority to pay Rs 10 lakh each to those affected within six weeks.
The bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing an appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s decision, on March 8, 2021, to dismiss a clutch of petitions against the demolitions carried out the previous day. The petitioners included a professor, a lawyer and three others.
Saying that the appellants were not given a “reasonable opportunity” to explain their position, the SC said: “These cases shock our conscience.
Residential premises of the appellants have been high-handedly demolished… Carrying out demolition in such a manner shows insensitivity on the part of the statutory development authority… The authorities, and especially the development authority, must remember that the right to shelter is also an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.” ....
For eight-year-old Ananya Yadav, the schoolbag containing Hindi, English and “ginti ki” (maths) books is her most prized possession, a medium to one day become an “IAS adhikari” and “protect the country”.
So, when a shed close to where the bag was kept caught fire during a demolition drive in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar on March 21, she rushed to save it.
Little did Ananya know that a video of her running with the bag would catch the attention of the country’s top court.
During a hearing on Tuesday, a Bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan cited the video that is viral online and said it had “shocked everyone.”
“There is a recent video in which small huts are being demolished by bulldozers. There is a small girl running away from the demolished hut with a clutch of books in her hand. It has shocked everyone,” Justice Bhuyan observed.
“I returned from school and kept my bag in the chappar (thatched shed), where my mother had tied the animals. (During the demolition), there was a fire in the chappar next to ours, and I immediately thought of my schoolbag and books. My mother tried to stop me, but I broke free and ran,” Ananya, a Class 1 student at the Government Primary School, Arai, told The Indian Express.
“I was afraid my books and bag would get burnt. I went back to my mother afterwards,” she said, adding that she was apprehensive she wouldn’t get a replacement from school.
Speaking to The Indian Express, her grandfather, Ram Milan Yadav (70), claimed the administration had come to demolish structures on about “two biswa” of land, which their family has occupied for “50 years”.
