Fearing demolition, 70-yr-old Khori local kills self

Faridabad: As authorities in Faridabad work towards razing the Khora village settlement on orders of the Supreme Court, a 70-year-old man — Ganesh Lala, who had put in his life-savings to build his home there, killed himself.

Ganesh had put in Rs 2 lakh to build the house in Khori. Taking cognisance of this case, the Faridabad Police have booked a property dealer who had purportedly sold the plot to Ganesh Lal and his family.

The village, from where over 30,000 people will be displaced as a result of the demolition drive, is on edge with huge deployment of police forces and Section-144 being imposed in the area to quell untoward incidents arising from protests against the eviction of the villagers.

Consequently, the Faridabad Police, on Tuesday, arrested local activist Nirmal Gorana, who is also the general secretary of Bandhua Mukti Morcha, for violating the Section-144 orders.

The police have levelled charges that the social activist was trying to instigate locals in the area and provoking them to stop demolition that would be undertaken by the authorities.

With thousands of residents already fighting against authorities for rehabilitation, the arrest of Nirmal Gorana led to further agitations. While there are a substantial number of people who have left Khori village fearing demolition of the structures, there are also thousands of people who have been protesting against authorities for proper rehabilitation.

According to the official survey that was conducted there are around 6157 structures that need to be demolished. Among these structures there are not only residential houses but also educational institutions, religious structures and also commercial establishments.

The district administration has already cut -off electricity and water supply to the area which as per officials had also been arranged through illegal means

It is estimated that settlements around the area started way back in early 2000's and it continued to grow as two major South Haryana cities of Faridabad and Gurugram grew economically during these years.