NEW DELHI: Mohammad Qayyum along with his wife and two sons tried to return to his house in Shiv Vihar burnt in the recent communal riots in North East Delhi. After being evicted from the Eidgah relief camp where many riot-affected families were staying, Qayyum and his family were left with no other choice.
The Eidgah camp, where 300 other displaced families like Qayyum’s had been living since February, was shut after Prime Minister Modi announced nationwide curfew on March 24 as part of measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus pandemic.
Thirty-eight-year-old Qayyum and his family was forced to move into his parent’s place where 26 other people including his four brothers and their families.
Rickshaw driver Bahura Khan has managed to find a room on rent for his wife and his sons in Mustafabad. But the family does not even have a stove to cook their food on. Khan lost his entire savings when his house was looted in the riots.
“We are living at the mercy of our neighbours but we do not know until when they will be generous. I cannot work because of the shutdown and we have no money left. A sum of Rs 3000 we received at the camp has gone into paying rent. For us, hunger is a bigger concern than Coronavirus ” said Khan.
Qayyum and Khan are not the only ones who are struggling because of the nationwide lockdown. Of the hundreds of people who were forced out of the camp due to COVID-19, many have similar tales. At a time when social distancing is a must to combat the pandemic, many families are crammed up in small rooms.
Officials say that the assistance work has been halted and they intend to resume the work after settling of the pandemic but riot survivors say that may be too late.
Twenty-one-year-old Gulistan, whose two-storeyed house at Shiv Vihar was looted in the recent communal riots in North East Delhi, is now living in a one-room tenement in Mustafabad along with her eight family members. Gulistan was to get married this year. Her father Shamsul Ahmad had made the necessary purchases for her wedding, including jewellery. They lost all of it in the riots. And Gulistan’s wedding was cancelled because the groom’s family understood that Gulistan’s family, which is barely affording the rent, had nothing to offer them.
The Idgah relief camp in north-east Delhi’s Mustafabad, which was set up by the Delhi Waqf Board for people displaced by the riots, was cleared out completely on March 24. Delhi government and Wakf board officials say the eviction was inevitable in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
People who were working at the camp say they managed to settle most of the victims in nearby houses. But they add that the displaced people have still not received compensation promised by Delhi government, because of a bureaucratic hurdle – Waqf board, coordinating the relief and compensation distribution work, doesn’t have a chairperson after Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan vacated the chair on March 21.
The board had announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each and 60000 each for families whose houses were damaged in the riots. Officials say that cheques were prepared and were to be handed over soon but the work got halted due to Khan’s removal. “The cheques are no longer valid. They could not be distributed. We are waiting for authorisation. The field work is halted because of the shutdown,” an official said.
Locals say Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Haji Yunus gave Rs 3000 and some rations to around two hundred families who were staying at the Idgah camp. Almost a hundred other families also staying at the camp got nothing.