The Madhya Pradesh government has reached out to Haseena Fakhroo, the resident of Khargone with the intention of rehabilitating the family. On April 13, OpIndia clarified how, contrary to claims made by various media houses, Haseena Fakhroo’s house was demolished by the district administration because it was built illegally using the PMAY grant.
The Indian Express reported on April 18 that on Saturday afternoon (April 16), officials from the district administration and the Nagar Nigam paid a visit to Fakhroo and her family, who had taken refuge in an abandoned mosque nearby. After giving them ration, officials took the thumb impressions from Haseena’s family members and informed them that they would be relocated to a multiplex.
Interestingly, The Indian Express was one of the first media houses to report the misleading claim that Haseena’s house, made under PMAY, was demolished as a consequence of the action against stone-pelting miscreants.
“They (the officials) first told us they will shift us to a multiplex, but that building is in a communal area, so we refused. Then the team asked us where our old house was. We told them we have been living in Khaskhaswadi for three decades, but they still went around with locals searching for our house in different localities,” Haseena Fakhroo’s son Amjad Khan was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
It may be recalled that recently, the report of the demolition of the house of one Haseena Fakhroo, which was reportedly built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or PMAY (Urban), had drawn a lot of media attention. Many media houses, jumped on the news that the PMAY house had been demolished as a result of the action against stone-pelting miscreants. A report by The Indian Express categorically mentioned the same. Questions were raised about why such a house, which was built through a government programme, is being scrutinised.
Notably, this news had started doing the rounds after the Khargone administration, on April 11, took strict action against the miscreants who had pelted stones at the Ram Navami procession on Sunday. The illegally constructed buildings and homes of the perpetrators were bulldozed by the administration.
OpIndia had reported on April 13, how the claims being made by media houses like The Indian Express were completely misleading because the house of Haseena Fakhroo was not demolished because of the stone-pelting incident, it was bulldozed because it was built illegally using the PMAY grant.
The administration had already issued an advance notice and the house was demolished accordingly. According to the administration, the house was built on encroached land, and that’s why it was demolished.
The notice sent to owner Haseena Fakroo, which was sent to her on April 7, 2020 – three days prior to the Ram Navami violence, specifically mentioned that the land upon on which the ‘kaccha’ (temporary) house was built was encroached.
The Tehsil Court further stated that after three days from receiving the letter, the house should be freed and this should be informed to the court in writing. The notice stated that if the same is not abided by, the administration would take charge of the land in the official ways. After the notice period ended on April 10, the enquiry on Haseena Fakhroo’s house kicked off while the administration decided to demolish the encroached occupation in the form of the house.
Therefore, the demolition of this particular house built using the PMAY fund had no link with the houses of stone pelters which were also demolished. Both the demolitions just took place at the same time, and the media used that to publish false and misleading claims.
Moreover, while the recent tehsil court had notified that the construction by Haseena Fakhroo is an encroachment, it underlined that the due process of land acquisition under PMAY was not followed by her. Similarly, eleven other homes in the vicinity had attracted the same action. This seemed like a clear case of land grabbing, while money was collected from a government scheme for the same.
