High Court refused stay, state denied RTI: PUCL’s Chandola report calls out urban authoritarianism

By Rajiv Shah 

The Ahmedabad unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a detailed field research report titled "Are we not Indians? The Development Politics of Uprooting Citizens and Shattering Lives at Chandola Lake," documenting the mass demolitions in the city's periphery that took place between April 27 and May 2, 2025.

The report claims that approximately 12,500 residential, commercial and religious structures were demolished, leaving an estimated population of around 2.5 lakh from the Dani Limda Ward — one of the poorest and densest wards in Ahmedabad's South Zone — rendered homeless.

The event featured harrowing testimonies from former residents. Hasanbhai, Munavaraben, and Minajuddinbhai — all former residents of the Chandola Lake settlements — shared firsthand accounts of the atrocities.

The report quotes one resident recalling the early morning raids on April 27: "We had no sense of time, just humiliation. The police banged on doors with their lathis, people were pulled out of their homes and rounded up. They said they would let the women and children go but they herded them too."

At least 2,024 people were detained across Gujarat, including 890 from Ahmedabad alone — among them 457 men, 219 women and 214 children. Detainees were paraded through the streets from Kankaria Football Ground to the Crime Branch headquarters, with drone videos of the march circulated by police.

One resident told researchers: "My kids were more scared than during the COVID lockdown" — a quote that gives the report a section its title.

Triggered by Pahalgam attack

The report notes that the demolitions were triggered by the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians were killed. Gujarat's Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi labeled those detained as "ghuspatiye" (infiltrators) from Bangladesh, alleging links to drug cartels, human trafficking and sleeper cells.

However, the report states: "This is despite the fact that most of the people are from Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and West Bengal and possess relevant documentary evidence; and are not Bangladeshis, as claimed."

Of the 890 detained in Ahmedabad, only 143 were identified as Bangladeshis — yet the demolitions continued indiscriminately. The report adds that the authorities refused to respond to an RTI filed by PUCL members, citing national security.

PUCL Gujarat President Anand Yagnik, who spoke at a report release event in Ahmedabad, detailed his efforts to secure a court stay before the demolitions. A petition (Special Civil Application No. 6119 of 2025) was heard on April 29, 2025, but the Gujarat High Court refused to grant a stay.

The court ruled that the residents were on a proposed water body and government land without permission, and held that a recent Supreme Court judgment protecting homes from demolition "would not apply to the present case" because of an exception for encroachments on public spaces and water bodies.

However, the court also observed that if residents could prove they resided in Chandola Lake before 2010, the state "shall provide alternative accommodation."

Activist Satya Oza presented the report's findings, highlighting a systemic pattern. The report notes that housing demolitions have also taken place in Beyt Dwarka, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Mehsana, Jamnagar and Rajkot between May 2024 and May 2025, citing three justifications: punishing "anti-social elements," development projects (lakefronts, riverfronts, road widening), and "security purposes."

The report states: "The current regime seems to operate on a policy of 'Demolition first, discussion later'. This is a far cry from the government that formulated pro-poor programmes such as the Slum Networking Programme in the 1990s."

Social worker Rashidaben spoke about the hardships faced during the demolitions, which occurred when temperatures touched 43 degrees Celsius and children were writing their exams.

Rehabilitation a cruel mirage

While the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's Standing Committee approved alternate housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), the conditions are prohibitive. The report details that affected households must pay an initial amount of ₹7,500 and a total of approximately ₹3 lakh for a 70 square metre EWS house.

The report condemns this as inconsistent with the Regulations for the Rehabilitation and Redevelopment of Slums, 2010, which mandate free housing to eligible slum dwellers: "This approach is inconsistent with the 2010 Regulations, which require the State and implementing agency to provide free rehabilitation housing to slum dwellers displaced from untenable slums, without imposing any financial burden upon them."

The report further exposes a critical contradiction: "If the residents were genuinely 'illegal occupants' as claimed, they would not qualify for EWS housing benefits. The subsequent provision of EWS housing not only undermines the earlier narrative of illegality but also implicitly acknowledges the residents as legitimate slum dwellers entitled to rehabilitation."

Media outlets that prioritized the official narrative relied almost exclusively on quotes from the AMC and police commissioners, the report notes: "By labeling the victims as foreign and illegal, the state and the supportive media implicitly revoked their entitlement to constitutional protection, welfare, and due process."

Meanwhile, several children have missed an entire academic year. "At the Republic School, Teen Darwaza, 19th May 2025 was the last date of re-examination, but some families were still trying to recover and shift their belongings till 20th, right after their house was bulldozed," the report states.

Residents have dispersed to Vadodara, Bharuch, Nadiad, and areas within Ahmedabad including Fatehwadi, Sarkhej, Juhapura and Vatwa — some of which faced their own demolitions later.

The report details how the rehabilitation process itself has become a barrier: "The forms and the documents had a prohibitive cost of around Rs. 8500, including Rs. 800-900 for an affidavit, and Rs. 7550 for requesting alternative housing, refundable in case the application is rejected. However, those whose applications for a house were approved, would have to pay Rs. 3.5 lakh in a year. Even a single mistake in the form would require the purchase of another form for the same price, i.e. Rs. 900."

Worse, the verification process follows no consistent guidelines: "One person would accept the form, money and documents; the next person would reject a document previously approved; the third person would point out another gap, with the applicants caught in between, unable to proceed."

The report ends with a warning as Ahmedabad prepares to host the Commonwealth Games: "Its development cannot come at the cost of the houses of the urban poor, who have played an important role in building this city."

As one of the report's epigraphs — a poem by Hozefa Ujjaini, which also provided the report's title — hauntingly states:

"This pond was ours, and its fish were ours, our small settlements rooted in its earth. Then you came, appearing as cruel rulers, and cast a net so vast that in an instant, our very existence was erased."