With a team of documentary makers
of a channel, I had a chance to revisit Ganeshnagar after about 3 and half
years. Last I went was with a group of students, when one room of the present
school building was constructed. Then, I wanted the students of planning,
housing specialisation doing their studio exercise on rehabilitation strategy,
to see how not to do rehabilitation. In 2012, when I went, I was a bit
sceptical about going for the fear of being recognised as a member of the Buch
Committee involved in the monitoring of Sabarmati riverfront rehabilitation and
on whose head the blame of inadequate and inequitable rehabilitation has been
laid. Luckily then and even now, my identity did not come to the fore and hence
in the way of my visit.
The living conditions in 2016, remains
as we had documented at the Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) in Ganeshnagar in
2012 (See http://cept.ac.in/UserFiles/File/CUE/Advocacy/Living%20Conditions%20in%20Ganeshnagar_Resize.pdf).
Prior to that, in 2009, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working with the
poor and displaced in the city had held a public hearing on displacements (http://cept.ac.in/UserFiles/File/CUE/Advocacy/Public%20Hearing%20on%20Displacements.pdf),
also documented extremely poor living conditions in the location. But, there is
some change; the height of the garbage dump at Pirana, just across the road
from Ganeshnagar, has increased and can now be seen from Ganeshnagar. Earlier,
we could only smell the garbage, as the public hearing report documents, but
could not see it.
For those who know Ahmedabad,
coming from Narol circle and way to crossing Sabarmati river, Pirana garbage
dump, which now is about 50 to 60 meters high, comes on the left side, that is
to the north of the road and Ganeshnagar is on the right, that is to the south
of the road. Standing in Ganeshnagar, if one faces north, one can first see
high tension lines passing through, and then the Pirana garbage mountain. This
garbage mountain did not exist 4 years back. The garbage dump was and the
olfactory senses revolted on reaching Ganeshnagar, but, now one sees, one
smells and one experiences the garbage dump! This is the first big change.
Ganeshnagar site has been used
for dumping the displaced households from various infrastructure development
projects post 2008. Term dumped is used, as they were literally dumped and not
shifted through any pre-planning. Hence, there are evictees of road projects,
flyover projects, Kankaria lake development projects and the biggest
displacement project of all Sabarmati Riverfront project. In 2011 November,
about 4,000 to 5,000 households evicted from the Sabarmati riverbank, evicted
under the Gujarat High Court order, were dumped on the site in a short period.
Ganeshnagar became a large temporary rehabilitation site. The idea was that
these households would then be given a permanent rehabilitation unit. Which
many were given; taken to Vatwa rehabilitation site, Odhav rehabilitation site,
etc. But, many are still left on the Ganeshnagar site. Some 20,000 BSUP (Basic
Services for the Urban Poor) dwelling units constructed in the city proved rehabilitation
to the project affected people of the city. Imagine, what would have been the
plight of these households if JNNURM was not designed and if BSUP was not
introduced! In December 2016, about 850 households still remain in Ganeshnagar.
Some of them were from the riverfront, and have been given an allotment letter
for a plot of land in Ganeshnagar. Strangely, there was no map accompanying
that would tell them which plot of land in the large site.
There were some households who
were evicted in 2008 and have been living on the site since then. Post 2011
dumping of the riverfront evictees, our public hearing and pressure of the NGOs
who went to assist the large mass of evictees in 2011, the Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) constructed water supply points with water taps and public
toilets. The water taps are broken, the hardware vandalised and stolen, and no
water is coming.
 |
| Public Toilet in Ganeshnagar |
The public toilets are not maintained and are now filled with shit. The area around the public toilets is also full of animal and human shit, plastics and all kinds of rubbish; completely unusable! This forces everyone to defecate in the open! Do we have to go anywhere to witness hell! Nehruji said about Kashmir, if there is heaven on earth, it is here it is here! We have to say about Ganeshnagar, if there is hell on the earth, one of them is here! The second change is that the facilities provided by the AMC for the residents of Ganeshnagar rehabilitation site, as many have been allotted plot of land on the site, are now under total disrepair and unusable.
 |
| Broken water taps |
The third change is that two
rooms of an anaganwadi, which also came through the pressure of the NGOs, have
been constructed. Thankfully, they are working. A lady came at about 10.30 am
and was cleaning. There is also a school building now. The school is working.
But, the rooms are also used for gambling and drinking when the school is
closed. The caretaker (chowkidar) of the school, who had objected to the abuse
of the school premises, was murdered two months back.
 |
| Anganwadi at Ganeshnagar |
 |
| School at Ganeshnagar |
The fourth, and probably the most
dangerous change that has come is setting up of a unit of ‘gau rakshak dal’ (a
cow protection unit – dal in a sense is a mini battalion). The organisation was
constructing a pucca building in the centre of the site. The representative of
the unit, who got a whiff of our visit to the site, came instantaneously as we
entered, even before we could get out of our vehicles. He asked us in some
minor menacing way, who we were. Our answer to him was the same question
bounced back. After telling his affiliation and on our query as to what he was
doing here, he said, he was providing water to the site residents. Any guess as
to what would be coming forth here in the future! The impacts of demonitisation
were ofcourse not missed out on us.
