Hyderabad: Mohd Iqbal, a resident of Shankar Nagar located on the banks of the Musi River near Chaderghat, is an auto driver by occupation, and his wife is a domestic worker who makes Rs 3,000 per month. They don’t have children.
On Saturday, they had their luggage packed and kept outside, as the revenue and police officials were carrying out the eviction of 120 households in that area.
The revenue officials were handing out the allotment letters and registration certificates for the 2bhk flats built near Chanchalguda and Saidabad, where families were being shifted. However, Iqbal, who was ready to shift, had a different concern.
“On Friday, when we went to shift there, the locals who have been waiting to get those flats attacked us saying we couldn’t enter the apartment premises. We don’t know what will happen today,” Iqbal told Siasat.com.
Saifuddin Shafi, the MIM corporator from the Old Malakpet division, was visibly upset, as he tried to convince the evictees that this was the best that could be offered to them. He reminded them that the ‘pattas’ were being given, their transportation charges were being paid and they were being shifted to a better place than they have been living all these years.
At a distance is the Vinayaka Veedhi area in Moosa Nagar locality located by the side of the new Chaderghat bridge.
The 17-member family of Harinath Pandey including his three sons, their wives and children were boarding their luggage on a Bolero pickup truck to permanently move to the 2bhk apartment complex in Saidabad near Santosh Nagar X Roads.
According to Manoj Pandey, his father Harinath had built the house measuring 100 square yards 20 years ago. There were several rooms located on either side of the congested and dark corridor.
Malathi Pandey, Harinath Pandey’s wife, looked helpless as she sat on a chair looking at the luggage being shifted.
When asked if they didn’t fear the recurrence of Musi floods, she told Siasat.com that the Musi river was flooded only once in the last 20 years. That was three years ago. They were provided with food and essentials by the authorities then.
“What can be done? They just came and asked us to shift,” she exclaimed, talking about the present permanent eviction.
Several children go to a nearby model school to study. For the past three days, their studies have been affected due to the eviction crisis.
Corporator Shafi told Siasat.com that in a single building/house, whoever possessed patta, will be given a 2bhk apartment.
Musthari, a tenant who was on the roads in the basthi said that she was paying Rs 2,000 per month as rent, and now it has become difficult for her to find a house in that budget.
“For the past three days, we haven’t been able to eat properly. We are with our kids and luggage on the roads. Just don’t know what to do,” she told Siasat.com.
At a distance further upstream near a temple, a Gaushala has also been marked for demolition. There were a few female migrant workers from Bihar, who were busy removing garlic skin, which a local trader sells in the Old Malakpet Gunj.
Several migrant workers had been living in these basthis for a nominal rent, as they couldn’t afford to pay exorbitant rents taken in colonies. There were these migrants who could be seen shifting their luggage, silently without complaining about anything.
Like the birds which fly away from a tree when disturbed, only to find shelter on another tree, the evictees of the Musi River Development Plan (rejuvenation and beautification) near Chaderghat, will also survive and move on.
| Posted by Veena Nair | 
