Notices were issued on January 27 giving the residents ten days to move out of the area which faces demolition to pave the way for a road
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Owners of around 300 houses, most of them Muslims, have been served eviction notices by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in the Randip Bakra Mandi area of Gujarat. The notices have been served even as the state high court has put a stay on the demolition drive.
Notices were served on January 27 giving the residents ten days to move out of the area which faces demolition to pave the way for a road. Residents claim the battle for the land dates back to 2005 when the Gujarat High Court ordered a stay on the demolition drive in the area. The court had ordered the authorities to rebuild the houses demolished at that time and initiate rehabilitation measures before launching the demolition process.
“Now in 2025, they have given notice again to us asking us to vacate the land within 10 days. In the entire Gujarat, the bulldozer of Dada (CM Bhupendra Patel is called ‘Dada’) is being run like Baba’s bulldozer in Uttar Pradesh and Mama’s bulldozer in Madhya Pradesh. In the whole country, bulldozer politics is affecting the poor sections of people,” Hakik, a resident of the area, told Clarion India over the phone.
Hakik said all those who have been served eviction notices are labourers and daily wagers and 80 percent of them are Muslims. The rest are from Adivasi and other castes.
Residents are demanding rehabilitation or alternative arrangements before their houses are demolished.
On Monday, a delegation of residents visited the office of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s west zone to submit a memorandum with the demands of rehabilitation.
The authorities said though a 10-day notice has been issued they will process all the claims submitted by the residents.
“We have written 10 days in the order but we will process all the claims of the people who submit their documents in this regard. Then we will sort them out and put them up before higher authorities to decide on those eligible for rehabilitation,” Mahesh Tabiyar, an AMC official, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
When asked about the 2005 order of the Gujarat High Court that had stayed demolition, Tabiyar said, “This matter is very old and so we have asked the residents to provide documentation. Based on this, we can decide on rehabilitation. They can submit any documents that show their previous residence there.”
Advocate Shamsad Pathan, the state president of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) who is representing the residents, said that the official told him that notices were served only to warn the residents of the impending demolition.
He asked the officials why the notices did not mention the rehabilitation procedures. “They orally told us to submit documents. They promised to give the house if the documents were dated before 2010. All the documents were submitted to the officials,” Pathan said on Monday.
“These officials are pawns in the hands of the government. We don’t have trust in their words. That’s why we are also going to the high court. I will fight your battle,” he told the worried residents.
Those served notices claim that they have been living in the area for several decades and they have all the documents of the land ownership.
