Aarti cannot forget those three hours. She was watching TV when one of her neighbors told her that a municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) demolition squad was there with a bulldozer and around 100 policemen.

Aarti along with 20 more families living in Karol Bagh’s China Market area begged the MCD officials not to demolish their houses. But it was in vain.

On Thursday, they got 30 minutes to evict the houses. In the next three hours, the bulldozer razed the houses to mounds of rubble.

“They did not even wait for the males to come back. We have nowhere to go now,” says the 13-year-old.

Evicted citizens claim that the MCD did not give them any notice before demolishing their houses. They say that a case is going on in the district court the next hearing of which is scheduled on August 8. “They did not wait for the court orders and have rendered us homeless,” said Mukesh, an affected resident, adding that many people could not even take out their belongings from their houses.

Rajendra Verma, deputy commissioner, MCD, Karol Bagh zone said that these were encroachments and had to be removed. According to Verma, the MCD first informed the residents about the demolition earlier this year. “They moved the district court to obtain a stay which was not granted. Then they filed a PIL in the high court which was dismissed. They wanted the court to reconsider the PIL, but the court did not listen to them,” said Verma.

Currently, the 85 effected residents have nowhere to go. Since Thursday afternoon, they are living outside their demolished houses. “We will not move because we have nowhere to go. Our forefathers lived here. We have no property which we can call ours,” said an inconsolable Rajendar.