On June 1, under heavy police presence, bulldozers rolled into Madrasi Camp in Jangpura, demolishing slum homes following a Delhi High Court order that deemed the settlement – along the Barapullah drain – illegal and a cause of monsoon flooding.

According to a survey by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), 189 of the 370 jhuggis were found eligible for rehabilitation under the 2015 Slum and Jhuggi-Jhopri Rehabilitation Policy. These families were allotted DDA flats in Narela – nearly 50 kilometres from the site.

However, residents contest the figures, claiming there were over 700 jhuggis, many of which had stood for more than five decades. Today, all that remains is debris.

When Newslaundry visited the site, several families were seen sitting amid the wreckage of their homes, in tears. Many said they had been promised “homes where the huts were,” but had instead been uprooted and left with nothing. Some accused the Modi government of betrayal after securing their votes.

The DDA maintains that the Narela flats are ready for occupancy. But residents speak of a different reality – no steady water supply, unreliable electricity, and poor access to basic services.

Narela, located at the city's northern edge, offers little in terms of employment, education, or healthcare. Most slum dwellers worked as sanitation workers, domestic workers, or daily wage earners who depended on work in and around Jangpura. A 50-kilometre commute is out of reach for many, and there are few livelihood options at the new site.

Longtime residents of the Narela DDA flats echoed the concerns. They said the area has remained underdeveloped for years and warned that the newly relocated families would face the same challenges.

For those displaced from Madrasi Camp, the demolition has meant more than the loss of a roof – it has torn apart entire communities, cut off incomes, disrupted children’s schooling, and upended lives built over decades.

Watch our video report.