On 5 March, 2019 about 200 houses belonging to mostly daily wage category of Muslim community were burned by personnel of Cantonment Board along with local police as the Cantonment Board has been laying claim to their land in Budhia ka Baag or Mahigran or Macheran, a name derived from fishing trade, in Meerut city. It is interesting that the same Cantonment Board people first allowed people to settle and build houses on this piece of land by accepting bribes, otherwise how could 200 houses have come up?
But some people also claim that not the entire piece of land belongs of Cantonment Board, some of it has been bought by them and the ownership is private. However, whatever documents they had have now been burned. On 5 March, 2019 first the police came and demolished one house at 4:30 pm and then the settlement was up in flames by 5:15 pm. The fire brigade did not arrive until a couple of hours later by which time the entire settlement was reduced to ashes. No government official has visited the area so far, neither is there any possibility of any compensation arriving from authorities. So far only some local Muslim politicians have come forward to offer some relief.
Two contact numbers in the settlement: Mohammad Bilal, Moazzin of Masjid, 8979056369, Dilshad, 9027702362.
Fact finding committee: Faisal Khan, Sandeep Pandey and Shabbir Husain Dar
Fact finding done by Khudai Khidmatgar; Lok Rajniti Manch and NAPM
