New Delhi:
The people of Lakshmi Nagar are angry and are protesting against the civic authorities. And they have every reason to do so.
Over the years, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and other officials allowed buildings in the area to come up. Now the same officials are conducting surveys and declaring the buildings unsafe and literally throwing the people out on the streets.
In their quick survey, the MCD officials found 38 buildings as illegal and unsafe to live in. Surprisingly, these officials were not able to spot the building that collapsed on Monday, killing 67 people and injuring many others.
Sources tell NDTV that most buildings here are illegal and unsafe to live in.
Activists allege that these cheap and shoddy structures are routinely constructed by builders and local politicians who bribe MCD officials to get clearances in this riverside land where no constructions are permitted.
Then, they illegally add basements and extra floors, weakening the buildings further.
"Politicians teamed up with MCD officers to build these houses. I have written 100 times to the MCD chief," said Romesh Sabharwal, and activist and Director, Central Bank.
"How could the government not know? The government and its officers know everything, they created this mess," said a resident.
Most of these people were driven out of their villages by poverty and have struggled for years to own a home in the Capital.
In doing that they have been forced to bribe government officials at every step - for home registration, ration cards and voter ID.
Now in an unparalleled irony those same offices have booted them out of their homes.