Abdul Rashid (name changed) knows how it feels to be uprooted. As a twenty-something during the Emergency, he was one of thousands who were picked up and dumped east of the Yamuna, their homes bulldozed to the ground. Four decades later, there is a sense of deja vu. For the second time in his life, Rashid is being forced to relocate — albeit just across the road. His would-be neighbours, though, do not want him there. The official reason is the environment. The reality is more complex.

Metro vs Green Belt

Originally expected to be up and running by the end of 2016, Phase III of the Delhi Metro will miss its deadline by at least a few months, primarily due to a 286-metre-long spanner in the works of its longest route. For the Pink Line to be completed, 108 houses in Block 15 of east Delhi’s Trilokpuri, built from the ground up by the likes of Rashid, have to go. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has started building alternate accommodation — police protection was needed to take over the land on June 13 — but residents of Blocks 16 to 18 are trying to get a stay on the construction from either National Green Tribunal (NGT) or Delhi High Court.

Locals say the land on which the flats are being built is part of a “green belt” that was revived by over a thousand of them who cleared the area of garbage and planted saplings. “The green belt got depleted due to the timber mafia, which would come at night to fell trees, and smuggle wood for construction and cremation,” said Rajender Kumar, a 36-year-old who runs a hardware store from his home in Block 18. “Blocks with the prefix ‘Extra’ in their name came up in the clearing.”

Kumar claimed the park was created in 2012, but the applications requesting saplings from nearby nurseries that he produced, were from 2015. If the year in which the park was established is difficult to ascertain, determining whether it is part of a “green belt” is even tougher. Locals claimed the zonal plan proves it, but were unable to produce a copy when asked for it. “It’s with our lawyer,” said Charan Das Borra, a 49-year-old resident who owns a printing press.

DMRC and the other respondents in the cases — Delhi government, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) — say the land is a park. DMRC purchased the land from DUSIB. Locals allege DUSIB got the land from DDA and did not have the authority to change land use. The matter is sub judice — the next hearings are on September 9 (NGT) and September 30 (High Court). Newslaundry accessed this zonal plan from June 2010, which shows the land marked as “residential” (in yellow) and “regional park” (in dark green). It could not be verified if the plan has changed since then:

Muslims and Dalits are ‘different’

This is not to say that a park is not worth fighting for. In a concrete jungle, any green space is. More so Trilokpuri, whose inhabitants are, to quote the title of a Radiohead song, packed like sardines in crushed tin boxes. “As it is, this neighbourhood is very congested,” said Kumar. “On top of that, this is a khadar area (low-lying floodplain). If there is an earthquake, where do we run to safety?”

Valid concern. Unfortunately, it’s not the primary one. “They are different,” said Ajay Prasad (name changed), a 34-year-old resident of Block 18. “This area has a history of communal tension. I’m not saying anything will happen if they come here, but it’s best not to take that chance.” In case you were wondering, “they” refers to the affected residents of Block 15, almost all of whom are Muslims.

Residents of Trilokpuri have a shared history of marginalisation and violence. Already leading ghettoised lives, Dalits and Muslims were forced to resettle here during the Emergency, after their slums west of the Yamuna were demolished.

The residents of Blocks 16 to 18 came from jhuggi jhopri clusters in areas like Panchkuian Road and Moti Bagh. Blocks 16 and 17 are mostly made up of Dalits of the Balmiki and Jatav sub-castes, while Block 18 has a mixed population that includes, among others, Dalits and Baniyas. The Muslims of Blocks 15, 20 and 27 were evicted from Turkman Gate or Okhla. Among the latter was Rashid.

“When we first moved here, this whole area was a wasteland,” recalled the sexagenarian. “Many women and children fell ill; quite a few of them died.” The neighbourhood resembled a shantytown — allotted tiny plots of 22 square yards, families could not afford to build on them and lived in shacks.

Back then, livelihoods were far away and connectivity was non-existent. “I know many who lost their jobs because they often couldn’t make it to work on time and their employers did not understand,” said Rashid, who had to wait eternally for buses to transport the garments that he made for a living.

It’s a struggle that one would expect Kumar to identify with since his father faced similar challenges. “My father was a potter,” said Kumar. “After he shifted here, he had to lug his earthenware all the way over to Panchkuian Road, in overcrowded buses that arrived once in three hours.”

Worse was yet to come — in 1984, Trilokpuri’s residents witnessed one of independent India’s bloodiest pogroms, the anti-Sikh riots in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

After that terrible episode, the neighbourhood has acquired a mean reputation. Since then, trouble has always been perceived as simmering under the surface, rearing its head every now and then — in the form of stone pelting post-Babri, or the flare-up around the Diwali of 2014. It perhaps explains why residents don’t want to stir the pot. “Many of the Harijans (Dalits) rear pigs,” said Prasad, rather matter-of-factly. “If the Muslims see them, it might lead to (communal) tension.”

Shift, Enter

Prasad feels it is also why some of the affected residents of Block 15 were opposed to this move. Rashid, though, believes the reason is different. “There were some ‘baghi’ (rebel) families that were trying to strike a sweet deal just for themselves,” he said. What one gathered was the sense that those resisting the move have families that have grown too large for the 22-square-yard flats they will be allotted.

Over the years, each of the 108 dwelling units has expanded into a multi-storeyed pucca house, bringing the total number of affected people to well over a thousand. Like everyone else, Rashid is concerned about getting suitably rehabilitated. “I have three sons who have started their own families now,” he said. “Most families that moved here had three or four children. Now they have all grown up and had kids of their own.”

For the greater good, Rashid is willing to move across Vasundhara Road, where around 500 flats of 22 square yards each — 108 for affected people from Block 15, the rest for those from elsewhere — are being built, according to an on-site security guard. The official version, no one is willing to share. DMRC is tight-lipped as it expects additional claims to be made from relatives of the 108 allottees. On the occasions we visited the site, the project manager of BCC Developers & Promoters — the company that is constructing the quarters — was not around.

For obvious reasons, the affected people want to be relocated as close to their original homes as possible. There is also the question of commerce. “Many of them have shops on the main road,” said Kumar. “They fear they will lose customers if they move elsewhere.” According to Kumar, Maheish Girri, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Member of Parliament from East Delhi, had shown the affected people alternatives, but to no avail — the Muslim-majority Block 27 is located far away from the main road. Three kilometres away, Khichripur is a stronghold of Gujjars, a potential source of conflict.

As of now, the affected residents of Block 15 are staying where they are — the plan to put them up in rented accommodation has been dropped and DMRC has made it clear their houses will only be demolished once they move into their new flats. Eventually, though, they will have to move. The uncertainty over the timing is bothering Rashid and company. Lamenting that the area makes headlines only for the wrong reasons, Rashid said their plight has largely been ignored by the media. “Why does there have to be a riot for Trilokpuri to be noticed?” he asked, before rushing off for his evening prayer.