Bulldozer a symbol of power
There is a new symbol of power being used by the officials and the government personnel to remove
‘so called encroachment’. What is rather puzzling is that JCB or bulldozer is usually used to destroy strong concrete structures or huge trees etc. However this symbol is being used rampantly by the people in office to harass the ‘city makers’, be it the vendors or communities living on the periphery. Every norm has been grossly violated, neither do they serve the community notice or give an ear to their pain and plight. They come unannounced and they order to vacate the place in five minutes, as if it’s so easy to move, that your train has reached your station and you alight with your luggage. The insensitivity and the abusive language along with stealing of their goods place before us a question. It is legalized crime with a sanction to steal the goods of the people. The Magistrate under whose supervision this operation is being undertaken stands unmoved and unengaged, he simply wants the place to be vacated at any cost. I begin to believe they have lost all their humanness towards the plight of the people for whom most of the high-up’s are responsible. Vendors have been denied of their livelihood and the settlements re disrobed of their dignity.
Most of them are forced to live under the open sky with no shelter whatsoever during these days when the mercury is dropping at night and the wintry winds keep blowing. The elderly, the differently abled, the sick and children have to face this man made catastrophe and not a feeling of how resilient people are in the face of this ordeal.
This photograph of a stretch of land which was home for 70 families for near to seven decades was forcefully evicted on the pretext of the court order. The real purpose is that the judges and advocates wanted another gate despite having two huge gates. They are guarded by police force and people are living in the most inhuman situation. This is the rule of bureaucrats and judges, just for their benefit. Most of these communities are elderly , maimed, blind, children and women, forced to become vulnerable under the open sky.