Click to play videoNew Delhi: Delhi is not always the flyover to a great destiny; it is also a stopover for the slums, the displaced and the migrant worker who can't afford a better home. But unlike a Mumbai or Kolkata, where they stare in your face, slums in Delhi are conveniently tucked away in the fringes of the city.
“Police come and claim the plot belongs to them. They threaten to evict us, the fear of losing our homes haunt us,” says a slum dweller Harish.
But they still remain the largest votebank for politicians and therefore their empty promises never stops.
“I will develop the state of the slums,” says Congress candidate Krishna Tirath.
“The roads in our village are in a terrible condition,” tells another slum dweller.
Rickshaw puller Mohd Alam's family like many others living along the Yamuna banks were evicted in 2004, to make way for the Commonwealth Games. Half of the displaced were given pieces of land far away in Bawana where the city ends.
“It was barren land when we came here, we have had to build up houses on our own. Government didn’t help us,” says Alam.
Attempts to legalise slums have been going on for decades. The latest being the Delhi Laws Special Provision Act, it states - No slum cluster will be shifted unless land is required for a 'public purpose'.
They may be tired of the poll promises, but for the 45 lakh displaced in the Capital, their vote remains their only ticket to development.
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