Yash Gourkhede, social activist and founder of Jan-badlaav movement in Nagpur

Yash Gourkhede, a social activist and founder of Jan-badlaav movement from Nagpur spoke to Nation Next about the situation at city’s slum in Gautam Nagar, situated at Nildoh, Hingna tehsil. 

Gourkhede said, “On January 17, on a court’s order, Tehsildar Hansa Mohane demolished the slum. There were kids and women in the houses, yet they (officially) brutally continued the process. There were around 5o houses in the slum. These slum-dwellers are poor labourers!”

Hingna’s Gautam Nagar area slum after demolition in Nagpur

The social activist informed that the slum existed before 1995 and the slum dwellers’ names are also mentioned in the voter list of year 2001.

“They are protected under law and are bound to be rehabilitated. So it was the administrator’s duty to get the people new homes, but nothing like that happened,” he added.

He further said, “After the demolition, Mohane and senior Police Inspector Narke brought trucks at their own cost. They promised homes to a few slum dwellers and filled the vehicles with their belongings without consent, just to later abandon them (slum dwellers) everything mid-way.”

The now-homeless slum-dwellers at Hingna’s Gautam Nagar area in Nagpur

Gourkhede accused the officials of allegedly treating a handicapped lady named Pushpa who belongs to the Scheduled Caste. “Pushpa and her eight-year-old son were dragged out and left on the road. The boy resisted and as a result, his nose got injured in the process and both were thrashed by the police. Speaking about another lady, her household items are missing too.”

“Before the demolition drive, the now homeless people were sitting inside a mandir for shelter when two bouncers and some people came and started fencing the place,” he said.

This is a developing story. Please stay connected for the complete story and clarification from both parties.

Also read: Nagpur transgenders react on order that prohibits them from begging on signals, visiting homes