Nimmi and Naina, both students of class two at a school run by a Trust in the Yamuna Khadar area, do not know when they will be able to attend school next. They are shifting with their five siblings and parents to a place in Ghaziabad. Some officials from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the police came to the Yamuna Khadar area on July 7 and demolished their jhuggi and their school.

Dharam Pal, their father was loading all his belongings into a hired tractor on Saturday. “We decided to shift when they broke down our jhuggi on Wednesday,” he adds.

This had been their home for ten years.

Security threat during the Commonwealth Games has led to the eviction of these people from the area on the Yamuna riverbed, who have been farming in the area for more than ten years now.

A legal expert, who didn’t want to be named, said that the eviction being carried out by the DDA is not in good taste. “Though the agricultural labourers are not allowed to build even temporary jhuggis, but the eviction should be carried out under the procedure of law,” he added.

The police came back on Saturday to further break down the temporary installations that many had put up. “They also hit some of us with their lathis,” said Munna Lal, showing a swollen patch on his arm. He runs a make-shift shop, which stocks basic necessities, in the area. He has been running the shop for seven to eight years now.  . “The police have told me to shift all my stuff otherwise the committee will come and take it all away,” he said.

Another Dharam Pal, a father of four, was also hit by the police. “A policeman told me ‘we are asking you to leave politely right now. If you don’t go then we will have to insult you and we will all your stuff away too’,” said Pal.

A DDA official, who didn’t want to be named, said that there are two reasons for these people being made to shift. “The first reason is that no construction on the Yamuna river bed is allowed, not even temporary jhuggis. These people can only do farming here, but not live here,” he said.

The official said that the other reason is security purpose for the Commonwealth Games. “We will make cards for them before the Games so that they can continue to do farming here but they still can’t live here,” he added.

But the policemen who visited the site on Saturday seemed to have different plans. “The policemen have told us that once they throw us out, they will make a gate here and no one will be allowed to enter this area,” one of the labourers said.

Parminder Kaur Somal, the woman who runs the school in the area claimed that the land has been leased to a society called the Jheel Kuranja Cooperative Milk Producer Society Limited and thus the DDA cannot evict these people. She showed the lease agreement, which was signed between Delhi Improvement Trust (DIT), the then equivalent of DDA, and the society in 1950.

But the legal expert said that though there was a lease agreement between the DIT and the society, but it wasn’t renewed. “But if you look at it from a humanitarian angle, then these are the people who helped to develop this barren area,” he added.

The expert said that there are many illegal colonies in Delhi on the Yamuna river bed but this one is being targeted because of the upcoming Games.

One of the policemen present on Saturday said that they have been told to vacate the place in two days. Dharam Pal, the labourer said, “These Games have affected our lives badly and we would like to return to this place if they let us come back after the Games.”