Jahangirpuri demolition: Ganesh Gupta says his shop was razed even when he had all papers

After the initial shock and hurt of seeing their shops and houses brutally razed to the ground during the anti-encroachment drive in Jahangirpuri’s C-block, people are now collecting themselves and the remains of what has been left. Some of them have shared that they had the required papers for their shops and structures and they tried to show it to the authorities too, but nothing helped. Ganesh Kumar Gupta is one of them.

This is the area of Jahangirpuri where communal violence broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession.

Ganesh Kumar Gupta’s juice shop, which had been allotted to him by Delhi Development Authority in 1977, was demolished during this drive. He had attempted to show the North Delhi Municipal Corporation officials the document, but they weren’t willing to take a look. Instead, they razed his shop too.

“I tried telling them about the Supreme Court order. They didn’t want to listen to that either,” lamented Gupta.

"They authorities took no notice. This was our only source of income. My father ran this shop and now I run it. I have four children and a daughter-in-law. We will go to court against this. They demolished our shop despite having papers," Ganesh said.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation launched an anti-encroachment drive on Wednesday in view of the communal clashes that took place in Jahangirpuri during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on April 16. The Supreme Court has halted the demolition and will hear the matter on Thursday.