Haryana: Situation far from normal in violence hit Nuh

People whose shops were demolished are too scared to speak on the record. One such shopkeeper that CNBC-TV18 spoke to said that he has lost all his life savings with this shop. “You are seeing what they have done. Our lives depend on this. At least they should have given us notice. I just came here to take a look again, there is nothing left.”

A similar sight of demolition can be seen in the old bus stop area of Nuh town. Close to 400 shanties that stood on the side of the main road were demolished. Locals say that shopkeepers in the area are scared to open shops after the demolition.

“When the riots started, I was here. Of those whose shanties were razed, some of them ran away in fear, some haven’t even come back since. There was no order, no intimation given to them. They used to earn Rs 200-500 in a day here but it will now cost them Rs 50,000 to start work again. These are poor people, they will die of hunger. At least if you gave them an intimation, they would have saved some of the things lying inside the shops,” says Aslam, who runs a grocery shop in the old bus stop area.

Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took the suo moto cognizance of the issue and asked the state government to stop its demolition drive in a strongly worded order.

In its order on the matter, the High Court stated that the “State of Haryana is using force and is demolishing buildings on account of the fact that some riots have occurred in Gurugram and Nuh". The order further states that "Apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law and order problem is being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following the procedure established by law.”

Cases of loot were also reported in the area on the day of violence. The warehouse of a showroom called Sunil Hero on the highway that connects Nuh to Delhi and Gurugram was looted by a mob on July 31. According to the FIR filed at the Nuh City Police Station, 125-150 bikes were missing after a mob targeted the warehouse and stole bikes.

The police said that they have filed the FIR and will begin an investigation into the matter soon. 500 metres away from this Hero showroom is the main market of Nuh town. The market is shut mostly, with only a few shops opening for 3-4 hours. The impact of the shutdown is huge on the local businesses who say that the footfall has reduced to 10-15 percent.

“First there was demonetisation, then Covid, then the lockdowns and now this. Authorities failed to control the situation and whenever that happens, cities and businesses get affected. The economy of our market has fallen apart, no substantial business comes in the 4 hours that the shops are open,” said Suresh Kumar, who runs a motor repair shop in the Nuh Main Market.

Other shop owners like Mohommad Imtiyaz, who runs a cyber café here, say that their livelihood has taken a hit due to the atmosphere of fear. He says unless people come out of their homes without fear, the businesses won’t go back to normal.

“What do we do here when there are no customers? People from villages are not coming, and schools and colleges are shut. Rs 1,500-2,000 we used to earn in a day but now since there are no customers, we can’t even afford the petrol to come from the villages. People are not coming out of the houses because of fear,” says Imtiyaz.

Meanwhile, all major sites including the market, circuit house, medical college road among others see paramilitary forces and local police in huge numbers. However, an uneasy calm prevails in the area. ​