Covid 19 has been responsible for huge economic recession not only in India but throughout the world. People have lost their jobs and many have become unemployed.
Due to Covid 19 Pandemic many are suffering financially. They are struggling to survive. Inspite of the appeal made by our honourable Prime Minister and honourable Delhi Chief Minister to both the employers and owners not to throw people out of jobs and tenants out of homes even if businesses are slow and rents are not paid, yet many have lost their jobs and many lost their homes.
India has a huge unorganised sector where there are thousands of street vendors who sell their products on a wooden cart. They often encroach upon the land of the govt. They put their unauthorised stalls near market areas. This is quite common in India.
One such vendor is Savita (8595114362). Who has her stall in a residential area in an East Delhi colony. She is popularly called breadwali because she sells bread, eggs and tea. She makes tea on a stove which she sells to the passerbys. Her stall is in the market area of a DDA colony which is sandwiched between a mother dairy shop and a safal shop both of which are on govt land. Both Safal and Mother Dairy are govt run shops. Her stall is on an open space between these two shops.
She has been there for more than 20 years now. The stall originally belonged to her husband who died of heart attack in the year 2001 and ever since Savita has been running the stall. But that is not all that she does. She is also a caregiver and she feeds around 10 to 15 dogs daily. She is a widow who makes her meagre earnings by selling tea, bread and eggs. And in the night she cooks food for her four legged friends and feeds them. She feeds them rice and chicken. So all that she earns throughout the day is spent on food for her furry friends. That's all she has. No family, no human kids. She only has her furry friends for her family.
But her livelihood has suddenly been marred by the orders of the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi). The MCD officials came few days back and ransacked her belongings and took away all her goods. She has been able to get back some of her belongings from the MCD office.
According to the reporters Seema (M-+919711222564) and Shanti (M-918929307936) MCD has asked her to vacate the area. There are other street vendors too in the area but none were touched by the MCD. Apparently there has been a complaint by the Temple committee which has asked the MCD to get her removed. The temple is situated just few distance away. These are some of the main charges they have pressed against her:
1 She uses a cylinder for making tea which might burst and so it might endanger the temple complex
2 Because she sells tea so there is a lot of noise in the area which disrupts the peace of the temple
There is a street vendor in the same vicinity who sells chowmein. He too uses cylinder to prepare chowmein but the temple authorities do not find him a threat.
There is another tea vendor in the same complex but he too is not a threat to the temple people. His cylinder cannot burst and he is not responsible for the noise.
Anyhow Savita is being harassed by the temple people for quite sometime. And it's primarily for feeding the dogs. Earlier she used to use pressure cooker to prepare food but after objection by the temple she replaced cooker with a bowl.
Today an MCD representative came to remove Savita permanently from the area. The animal rights activists of the area gathered together and protested to this inhuman and sinful act of both the MCD and the Temple authorities.
While the MCD is absolutely right in taking action against her as encroachment is an offence. But what about the other vendors? Haven't they encroached? Why is MCD waiting for complaints from residents to take action against these vendors?
And how fair are the complainants? According to Shanti one of the complianants has encroached huge space around his house. Isn't that illegal? Any kind of encroachment is illegal and needs to be removed. Doesnt the complainant know this basic law???? Or do they think that they are above law and no one can touch them. Their encroachment is permissible and the poor widow's encroachment is illegal. How just is that?
And why remove only Savita? All encroachers of the area should be removed. Is it because she feeds dogs and others don't?
Savita is threatening to committ suicide. She has no source of income and her dogs are hungry. She cries not for her but for her dogs whom she is unable to feed. She is penniless for past four days. She is running from pillar to post but till now no help.
This is a clear example of how hypocrite we Indians have become.
The dogs near the temple are hungry for past four days. Has the temple authorities fed them? Or has the MCD sent anyone to feed them?
The answer is NO. None of them are bothered about them.
Savita is now jobless and dogs are foodless. Is this justice or is this a sin? Temple authorities please think........MCD please think.......
Temples are homes of Gods. Wonder how can Gods get disturbed and the peace be disrupted by the noise of the passerbys and by feeding of dogs. And the people who visit the temple fail to understand that peace comes from within. External noise can never disrupt your inner peace. And people who are at peace do not harm others. The greatest harm we can do is to snatch someones livelihood. Their bread and butter and this is what both the complainants and the MCD have done. That too during the cruel Covid 19 pandemic. Nothing can be more sinful than this.
And what happened to the Prime Minister's appeal and the Delhi Chief Minister's appeal?
If MCD is uprooting people and snatching their livelihood during the pandemic then what can be expected from the common man of India.
All Hindu temples light lamps inside the temple. What is the guarantee that these lamps will not pose a threat? That they will not catch fire?
There are certain things which are beyond logic and that is called faith. Faith can move mountains they say and when we light a lamp or a candle in the temple we do it with this faith that it will never catch fire. Because afer all it is God's house. How can such a thing ever happen in a God's home.
Just a piece of advise to such temple committee members who have used their education, knowledge and power to uproot a woman and her furry friends.
If you cannot provide anyone with a job then what business do you have to snatch it from anyone. That too from a poor, illiterate widow.
You have turned a hard-working daily wage earner into a beggar.
You have snatched food from the mouths of the voiceless and made them hungry for the rest of their lives.
If at all you were noble and pious souls then you would have made an alternative arrangement for her livelihood which was legal and also took the responsibility of feeding the dogs who are now starving to death.
You have made both the caregiver and her dogs life miserable.
Will this make the Gods in your temple happy?
Chief Minister of Delhi
@ArvindKejriwal
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Gautam Gambhir Member of Parliament East Delhi
@GautamGambhir
https://twitter.com/GautamGambhir?s=20
East Delhi Municipal Corporation
@OfficialEdmc
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