July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 16: Five days after their homes in Rani Bagh were pulled down by municipal administration, the families of 10 sanitary workers are still running from pillar to post and post to pillar as the Rs20,000 each they have received as compensation is too meagre an amount to get them decent accommodation.

The sanitary workers, who were employed by TMA city and Qasimabad, had been living in Rani Bagh since the days of defunct Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC).

Most of them belong to scheduled caste Hindu communities and only two are Muslim. The TMA says that their quarters had to be demolished to pave the way for ongoing beautification of Rani Bagh (zoo).

The TMA had issued them notices a week before carrying out demolition operation on July 12 asking them to vacate the quarters after the district government put into practice beautification plan for Rani Bagh under Hyderabad Development Package (HPG).

But given skyrocketing rents of houses the employees expressed their inability to move out so soon and buy their own accommodation elsewhere in the city.

They said that they had thought the administration would shift them to Kohisar area but it did not happen. Allotment of land in Kohisar was exclusively dealt by Sindh Board of Revenue through revenue department.

“We didn’t have enough money to move out to some other place to get a house on rent,” said Pervez, who is naib muqaddam (deputy supervisor of sanitary workers).

He said that they had now received Rs20,000 each from the district government as monetary assistance to get some affordable residence in katchi abadis.

The taluka municipal administration staff, however, left a temple untouched and took away all iron made material, allowing the families to collect unbroken bricks to sell them or use them in the construction of their homes.

Three families are still camped near the rubble of what was once their home while the rest have moved out.

They said they had been appealing to the district government not to demolish their quarters, arguing the financial assistance of Rs20,000, which they had received, was not going to provide them any meaningful help.

“The area vacated after quarters demolition will be developed into lawns and jogging tracks or fencing. Our quarters could have been saved if the project had been designed accordingly,” said Pervez. No one helped them in convincing the district government to spare their homes, he complained.

District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil contended that the sanitary workers were government employees and their quarters were owned by taluka municipal administration Qasimabad for which rent was being deducted from their salaries.

“The district government has given them Rs20,000 each to pay for advance money for obtaining a rented house in any katchi abadi,” he said.

Rani Bagh was being developed for the people of Hyderabad because it remained to be the only place of recreation for them and in future entry into the zoo would be charged, he said.

He said that the district government was not in a position to give them an alternate place because it was beyond its authority.

Only Sindh chief minister could allot land to anyone after approval by revenue department. Had it been possible people who were affected in a similar way would have been provided alternate accommodation, he said.