AHMEDABAD: The inhabitants of slums near Kalupur Darwaza rushed to the Gujarat high court on Monday, opposing the attempt of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to demolish their hutments in order to implement an old town planning scheme in the area.
According to the petitioners’ advocate, Hashim Qureshi, the civic body’s counsel had earlier promised the court that there would be no demolition activity while the litigation filed by the residents in 2020 was pending. “However, bulldozers were sent to the locality in the morning and we had to mention this before the court, which has posted a hearing for later this week,” he said.
The AMC filed an application on July 7 and urged the HC for an early hearing on the petition filed by the slum dwellers, who have been demanding alternative accommodation if the civic body and government want to implement TP Scheme No. 5 (City Wall Improvement) Section-3. The petition was filed in 2020 when the authorities tried to implement the TP Scheme, which the authorities say is necessary to create public amenities in this densely populated area.
On the other hand, the residents say that their families have been living on the land in question since the British era. The British had granted them ‘sanad’, but the documents were lost in a flood.