When 91-year-old Padma Award winner Mayadhar Raut was evicted from home!

91-year-old Odissi dance guru Mayadhar Raut, a Padma Shri awardee, has been rendered homeless by the Directorate of Estates. Mayadhar was allotted a government house in South Delhi’s Asian Sports Village. The process of eviction of Mayadhar and other artists has been started from Tuesday, whose allotment was canceled in 2014.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had issued an eviction notice to the artists in 2020. After which many artists including Birju Maharaj applied in the court. Following the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture, the artists were allotted houses in the 1970s on 3-year contracts at very low rents. Which was renewed every 3 years. This contract has not been renewed since 2014. After this the pressure on the artists to vacate the house was increasing.

The artists living in the Asiad Sports Village had until December 31, 2020, to vacate the house. The cabinet committee decided to waive the rent of 27 artists totaling Rs 32.09 crore for staying in the houses after 2014 and gave them time till December 31 to vacate the house. Mayadhar Raut’s daughter Madhumita Raut said the artist had lost the eviction case on February 25 and had until April 25 to vacate the houses in the Asian Sports Village. He said the artist had filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court, which was scheduled to hear the matter on Wednesday morning.

Madhumita further said that the officials knew that the appeal was to be heard on Wednesday, so they came along with the staff and police on Tuesday and started throwing things out. They started the proceedings at 1 pm, when I was serving lunch to my father. After the father was stabbed, Madhumita appealed for action but the officials did not agree. According to an official of the Director of Estates, the court did not give relief to the artists on Wednesday, so the eviction proceedings of the artists will remain the same. The official said that of the 28 artists who were allotted houses, 17 were leaving after receiving notices. Action will be taken against others in the next one week. However, other artists have given a written assurance to vacate the house by May 2.

Twelve artistes living in the Khel Village have also been ordered to vacate their homes, including Mohiniyattam dancer Bharathi Shivaji, Kuchipudi dancer Guru V Jayaram Rao, Dhrupad singer Ustad F Wasifuddin Dagar, Rani Singhal, Kathak experts Geetanjali Lal, Sarbang and Linga. Includes Devraj. Dakoji, Kamalini, artist Jatin Das, Pandit Bhajan Sopori and singer Rita Ganguly. If these people themselves do not vacate the house, then their belongings will also remain outside the house.