Returning from the Paris Olympics where he guided shooters Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh to victory, national pistol shooting coach Samaresh Jung was met with distressing news when he arrived at his residence in Delhi’s Khyber Pass Thursday evening — his ancestral home, where his family has lived since before independence, is set to be demolished Saturday morning.
“After the euphoria of Indian shooters winning two Olympic medals, I, the team coach, just returned home from the Olympics to the disheartening news that my house and locality is to be demolished in 2 days,” Jung posted on X Thursday night.
“Writ petition for interim relief cancelled, not taken up for hearing by high court. Is it an emergency or war situation that we hv to vacate in a day? Decorated Sportsman Arjuna Awardee not given a hearing, not a positive message for our sportsmen trying to win for the country (sic),” he added.
Speaking to The Indian Express Friday, he said, “The authorities came and announced that the whole area is going to be broken… whatever happiness we had about bagging medals at the Paris Olympics, we’ve had to leave there.”
Jung, who lives with his family of 12, expressed his frustration with the abruptness of the demolition announcement. “My mother is 75 years old; she has to leave her decades-old house now,” he said.
Jung, an Arjuna Awardee who also represented India at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he won five medals, added that he does not oppose vacating the place but is troubled by the short notice given to residents to pack their belongings and leave.
Anuja, his wife, a former India shooter who won a gold and a silver medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, said, “I am packing right now… I do not know what to leave and what to take. This is the home that the last three generations of our family have been staying in… there are generations-old belongings that we have to leave such as the books written by my husband’s father and mother because we do not have enough time to pack everything. I am trying to understand the urgency of the authorities; there is no war going on, why could they not give us a week’s time?”
According to a Delhi High Court order from July 9, the land belongs to the Ministry of Defence. A notice was issued on July 1, requiring residents to vacate by July 4. This was challenged, but in an urgent hearing on July 3, the court had allowed the demolition to proceed, provided due process was followed.
On July 9, the final hearing took place and the court ruled that the petitioners lacked documents proving their land ownership. The court identified them as trespassers, stating that the land, now under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, was being acquired for public purposes.
Over 250 houses in the inner part of the residential cluster were first demolished on July 16; officials have announced that the remaining buildings are now going to be demolished on Saturday morning.
A senior government official had said on July 16: “Fifteen acres of around 32 acres of land which belongs to the L&DO (Land and Development Office) were cleared; the remaining will be cleared later.”
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