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MCD elections: At Dalit locality, a better life is just across the road

Residents claimed their request for development work has been ignored, but said the roads and drains have been laid promptly for a resident who lives across the road.

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Broken sewage lines dot the park at Ladpur village. (Source: Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

The candidates came to campaign with dhols, said a 28-year-old mother sitting outside a primary school in Ladpur village near Kanjhawala in northwest Delhi after casting her vote in Sunday’s civic polls. “But they turned back after looking at the stagnant sewage water.” She has become an expert at taking videos on her cellphone of her children wading through sewage. “The park across the gali where I live is filled with stagnant water and there are mosquitoes night and day,” she told The Indian Express.

The mother of three claimed that all the houses to the left of where she was sitting belonged to “rich people”. There, the roads, sewage drains and parks are clean and wide, she said. But the predominantly Dalit settlement of over 500 families where she lives has to deal with broken sewage lines and an unhygienic park where children cannot play. Residents often find frogs, snakes and even fish in the stagnant water. They hope Sunday’s polls will bring about tangible changes.

It was on Ambedkar Jayanti this year that the park was renamed ‘Bhim Rao Ambedkar Park’, said a resident who lives a few metres away with his family. His older brother has been an unofficial mobiliser for the community, often walking around to collect money or signatures to get development work done.

“We have knocked on every door to get someone to take note of the situation here. The sewage from other parts of the village ends up flowing into our neighbourhood because of the broken sewage pipe. We have been to the local councillor, the AAP MLA, the MCD and the flood department. I even went to see the Chief Minister at the secretariat. Everyone promises to look into it but nothing has happened so far,” he said.

Residents claimed their request for development work has been ignored, but said the roads and drains have been laid promptly for a resident who lives across the road. “There is a government official who works at the MCD and the surroundings of his house have been spruced up,” said one resident.

For five years, Manisha Jasbir from the Congress has been the ward councillor in this seat reserved for women, though her husband is known to play a role in decision-making. “The unclean surroundings you see at the Dalit colony are because of the Delhi government. The colony comes under a special scheme of the state government and they are in charge of fixing and repairing things,” said Jasbir.

First uploaded on: 24-04-2017 at 06:38 IST

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