Life in jhuggis was better, says Swabhiman Apartments residents
Over three weeks after moving into Swabhiman Apartments in north-west Delhi's Ashok Vihar, built as part of an in situ slum rehabilitation project for those living in illegal slum clusters razed following court orders, Phoolchand, 64, a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh, started experiencing itchiness and rashes.
'A doctor told me that the ailment might be due to the water I am using,' Mr. Phoolchand said, adding that the symptoms disappeared days after he shifted to using bottled water for drinking and sourced piped water for bathing from a pipeline near the slum cluster where they used to live. 'What we get at the apartment is hard water, and we have stopped using it,' he said.
Many apartment residents also complained about several sewer pipelines in their buildings not yet being connected to the main drainage network. Of the 14 lifts in the society, the residents added, only a few are functional, and the ground floors flood whenever it rains because the proper channel for water dispersal is missing.
The flats were built by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the Centre's 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan' scheme and were inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 3 this year ahead of the Delhi Assembly poll.
Most of the 1,675 beneficiaries at the apartment are former residents of Ashok Vihar's Jailorwala Bagh slum cluster, where the DDA recently conducted an anti-encroachment drive and razed over 200 slum dwellings.
'Dysfunctional lifts'
Rampreet Jha, 43, who works in the Wazirpur industrial area, not only has to purchase a 20-litre potable water jar for his family every day, but he also has to carry it several flights of stairs to his flat as the lift in his building has been out of order. 'I had hoped that moving into the apartments would be transformational for my family. However, living here feels like a curse. Life in the jhuggi was much better,' he said.
'Fear of electrocution'
A security guard who wished to remain anonymous said, 'A key reason why lifts remain dysfunctional is that the ground floors are flooded and no electrician is willing to repair the lifts, fearing electrocution.' When The Hindu visited the apartments, it found accumulated water outside the main gate and in a few corridors on the ground. When reached for comment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Delhi Jal Board and the DDA did not respond.
(With inputs from Trisha Verma)
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