Khori residents stay put on the debris, wait for government help

Most people in the area are migrants from across India doing menial jobs

“We are not going to leave this place, not until the government makes an arrangement for us. We have lost all our savings and now have nowhere to go,” says Vijay Prajapati, 35, a daily wager, staying at Khori Basti for over a decade. The local municipal body, following the directions of the Supreme Court a month ago, has razed a majority of the houses in this 170-acre colony spread across Delhi and Haryana on the forest land. Most of its inhabitants — the migrants from across the country engaged in menial jobs — have covered the remnants of their partially demolished homes with plastic covers to continue to live in them and are reluctant to leave.