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Going home to rubble

Political exploitation, says UDA
These families are the victims of political exploitation, says Urban Development Authority Chairman Tudor Munesinghe. "They were located on this land by the previous regime without consent from the UDA for political advantage. We are helpless in the matter as we gave notice in 1999 for them to vacate. They have had ample time to do so," he said.

According to him, long standing illegal occupants can be provided with alternative housing or land such as Sahaspura, but in the case of short-term illegal occupants of UDA land such as the residents of Wattala's Nawaloka Udyanapura, the UDA has very little authority in the matter.

"However, we will try to find a place for them. If they have been harassed or not allowed to take their movable property from the houses prior to demolition, I will take action against such officers if the residents make a complaint," he added.

But whether alternative land will be provided is a question yet to be answered.

Meanwhile, the children hold onto their dolls and the adults to their placards as the police surround their homes and the bulldozers close in on them mercilessly.

By Chamintha Thilakarathna
Eight-year-old Lechchumi returned from school on July 11 to find her home missing. Scared, she rushed to where the little shack used to stand. Was it a nightmare in broad daylight? Instead of the tin roof and walls that she called home, she found only rubble.

Chairs and tables were broken. Glass pieces of what used to be a family photograph, religious statues, and children's toys were buried in the debris. Kitchen utensils and clothes were nowhere to be found. Tears poured down her face as she desperately searched for her belongings and her pet dog. Finding the doggie, she ran to a neighbour's house in tears. "What has happened to our house?" she asked unable to believe that it was no longer there....that her family no longer had a roof over their heads.

For the 1,400 residents in Wattala's Nawaloka Udyanapura, life came to a virtual standstill that Thursday. Like Lechchumi, other children returning from school and adults from work were stunned to discover their houses destroyed and their shocked families standing helplessly alongside. With babies in their arms and items salvaged from the ruins, the women searched for a place to heat water, put the infants down, cook, sit, wait for their husbands...... Unable to believe what had happened to them, they stood in anguish over the injustice; that their houses had been demolished without prior notice or alternative arrangements.

When The Sunday Times reached the location, tyres that were set on fire to keep the authorities away were still burning at the entrance to the housing scheme. People were holding up placards while children wandering amidst the smoke stared into the police bus carrying grim-faced officers with batons and at the bulldozers that had arrived to tear down the remaining houses.

Why the demolition? Because the land on which this scheme had been built has been allocated for a playground for the schools in the vicinity.

"They had no right to take away our home!", "Where will we live?!" the residents cried in unison.

A.K. Gnanamurthi, spokesman for the residents said that they were settled in the Nawaloka Udyanapura by the previous government as an optional place residence when their former homes were also demolished.

"This was given to us as optional land. When we came here in 1999 we invested a lot of time and energy filling the land and building our homes. In 2000 and 2001 December, the Urban Development Authority told us that they wanted us to leave. We made appeals to the then Ministers who assured us that our land would not be taken," he said.

However, as with all election promises, they were destined to be forgotten.

Victims of a political tug o'war, these families are now paying a bitter price for one party's loss and the other's victory. Is it fair that their children should suffer so for political bungling? Sadly, now no politician seems to hear their cries as they beg for a home and a roof over their heads.

"Where do we go?" they question. " We have lived here for three years and invested everything we have in making this place our home."

Despite having been considered illegal occupants of government land, they were granted electricity, pipelines etc. They paid taxes, and were included in the voting list. Their houses have authorized numbers as well.

"I have spent all the money I have on building this house. I have also taken a Rs. 50,000 loan from a moneylender for which I pay a monthly interest of Rs. 6,000. Now I don't have the house although I have the interest to pay," said Jesinna Shyamali (42), a mother of five. She added that the rest of the money required for the house came from her two teenage daughters who work at a garment factory to earn a living for the fatherless family. In fact, the day after the demolition, the moneylender had come in search of Jesinna and threatened her, asking her to pay up.

57-year-old Francis Silva faces a similar plight. "We took a loan from a money lender with a 20 per cent interest to fill the land and build this house."

One resident who had pleaded with the officials at least to allow him to rescue three newborn puppies had not been allowed to do so. The puppies lay dead beneath the rubble. At present the families wait in fear, wondering when the UDA officials would arrive next to tear down the remaining homes. "We will die before letting them destroy our homes," the residents said. The 168 houses with a population of 1400 have been told to vacate before officials came.

For most residents who are daily labourers, the past week has been a nightmare. They have not gone to work fearing that when they return their homes would not be there. A temporary shelter on the pavement accommodates the displaced families. So far, no option has been given.

With no solution in sight, the residents fear that they would be forced to hit the streets with their children, cooking utensils and salvaged furniture.

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