The residents of East Mehram Nagar, a village located near the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi, on Sunday held a Mahapanchayat to protest against the eviction notice served by the National Security Guard (NSG) earlier this month. Thirty-six communities from 360 villages attended the massive gathering to mark solidarity with those facing eviction.The notice, affixed to houses in the village, asks “unauthorised occupants to vacate the land by removing any encroachments, unauthorised constructions, or occupations” by September 30.While the residents allege that their ancestors and prior generations lived in the area for over 300 years, the NSG claims that the land was allotted to them by the Defence Ministry. “This land was given to us by the Defence Ministry and we have the legal documents. If they claim that the village is 300 years old they should possess proper documents. This is an encroached land,” a NSG official said.According to the officials, the families — after they were relocated from an area near the arrival gate of the Terminal of the IGIA in 1965 — had settled in this village. However, encroachment and illegal construction followed. Responding to villagers’ claims that government authorities provided a token allotment of 60 houses, the NSG official stated, “We have not issued notices to the marked 60 houses, and if any of those received notices, it may be due to illegal construction of additional rooms.”According to villagers, around 10,000 people reside in Mehram Nagar, the majority belonging to Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. Many are retired professionals who previously worked with airport authorities and airlines.At the Mahapanchayat, Lakhan Singh, National President of Rashtriya Jhadhu Manch and National General Secretary of the Indian Dalit Forum, claimed that families have lived in the area for nearly 300 years, with multiple generations now settled. “They possess all the necessary land records. The government is testing the patience of marginalised communities. The NSG has already taken parts of their land and water resources,” he said.Om Kumar (71), a fifth-generation resident, said that the land was used for farming and cattle grazing before 1965, and families lived farther away—where T1 arrival gate now stands. “My forefathers were zamindars. Government authorities shifted us here and gave a token of 60 houses, promising the rest would be taken care of. How can they ask us to vacate now? The NSG came into existence much later, in 1986. They’ve already taken our water sources, temples, and even the cremation ground. This is injustice,” he said.Story continues below this adAnother 70-year-old resident added, “We were suddenly relocated during the India-Pakistan war in 1965. They could have asked us to vacate in 1950 or 1965 when we lived in jhuggis. Why now, after we’ve invested our life savings in building concrete homes? We have a history dating back to the Mughal era. Even those who moved away still return to worship in our temples.”Ram Kishan Prajapati, a former DTDC employee born in 1955, recalled, “I have seen Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. I saw Lal Bahadur Shastri’s body wrapped in the Indian flag when it returned from Tashkent. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and even Bansuri Swaraj came here during the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign. Swaraj even pointed to us, saying, ‘This is my mama, nana, and nani, since her mother used to visit regularly.’Naseeb Singh Ujjainwal (47), another resident, noted that no paperwork was done during the Emergency in 1965, but villagers possessed valid documents dating back to 1918.Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Shri Devender Yadav, who also spoke at the Mahapanchayat, said, “After uprooting lakhs from Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters, the BJP government is now targeting Delhi’s villagers. The Congress party will not allow this to succeed. BJP’s sole aim is to displace the poor and hand over their land to Adani and Ambani. Delhi’s villagers will not be intimidated by the BJP government’s lathis—they will stand and fight against this injustice.”Story continues below this adHitting out at the BJP, he added, “The pro-rich Rekha Gupta government has neglected Delhi’s villages, offering no development or civic facilities.”An earlier notice served in July by the NSG has asked ‘the occupants to claim that this span parcel belongs to them, can show the proof or provide answers by July 31st.’