Team Herald
VASCO: The demolition of 54 structures at Baina left many families without a roof over their heads.
Though many of these families were feverishly looking out for rented premises in neighbourhood soon after structures were demolished, many of them couldn’t find a shelter.
Some of them said that they had no alternate residence and a rented premise was out of their reach.
“I had started working for Rs 3 per day as a daily wage labourer when I was 18 years old. Some 30 odd years ago I along with my family members including parents and a brother shifted to the residential area near Basaveshwara temple at Baina. In the last 20 years, all my family members including my parents and brother died one by one. Today I am 53 years old, all alone in this world and without any shelter. The shelter which I had has turned into debris and now finding another home and that too under my budget is highly impossible for me. I now have to either beg people to give me place to survive or will be forced to live under the sky till I die,” said Nagava Pereira, whose house was demolished on Tuesday.
Like Nagava, Ratna Kshatri (50) is also fighting a lonely battle to find an alternate home on rent. “I don’t know where to go now as the house where I was staying since last several decades has been demolished by MMC. My husband and two of my three sons died several years ago. The only son is also alcoholic and now I have no place to go. It would be better if the government feeds me poison so that I can die and get freedom from such life which is full of tension and pain,” Kshatri told the Herald, welling up with tears.
Many such affected families had similar stories to share and all of them were weeping with pain. Some of them told Herald that they were initially staying in hutments built close to the Baina shore but after the fire incident in 1984-85, the then administrative officer, Talwar Singh gave them oral permission to construct a small room on the vacant land (church property) near the Basaveshwara Temple at Baina on humanitarian grounds but they had never dreamt that they would be left without any shelter again after three decades and that too without any rehabilitation.
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Anganwadi facing threat of closer
After the demolition of 54 structures at Baina, threat of closer looms large on the nearby Aanganwadi located behind Maruti temple at Baina. As per information, out of total 22 students, majority of the students enrolled in this Aandanwadi were residing in the structures that were demolished by MMC. Now since these families have already started moving out of Baina, the student strength is likely to drop drastically. This might lead to the closure of Anganwadi at Baina. Some of the demolition affected parents have already informed the local official that they would not send their children to anganwadi from Wednesday as they would be shifting elsewhere.
