GURGAON: By lunchtime, they had homes. By evening, many had nowhere to go.For dozens of young professionals living in paying guest accommodations and rented flats in DLF-3, the ongoing sealing drive against illegal constructions has turned workdays into a frantic race against time – to pack, salvage and leave.Some got a call from neighbours. Some from landlords. Some found out when they reached home and saw police vans and bulldozers outside.All they had was just one or two hours – sometimes even less – to pack up their lives.The crackdown, being carried out by town and country planning department, follows Punjab and Haryana high court orders to act against illegal constructions in DLF phases. After an earlier round of sealing in June, authorities resumed the drive last week against buildings found violating approved plans or operating unauthorised PGs.But for tenants — many of them migrants new to the NCR city — the legality of the buildings was never a question they imagined would suddenly decide whether they had a roof over their heads. “One phone call and suddenly we were told to vacate. I had paid rent only last week. The owners knew this could happen, but stayed silent. Now, it’s us living in chaos,” said Sushant, a young executive whose family had come from Lucknow just days earlier to see where he lived. For this 26-year-old woman from Bengal, who moved to Gurgaon a few months ago for her first job in Cyber City, the eviction came in the middle of an office meeting on June 18. A neighbour called in panic and asked her to rush back to her rented flat in S block. By the time she arrived, over 50 police personnel and a bulldozer were waiting outside. Residents were told to vacate within two hours. But for her, the delay in getting the message meant barely 10 minutes. “I had a proper rental agreement. Police verification was done. Everything was legal on my part,” she told TOI. Paying Rs 30,000 a month, besides an equal security deposit, she said she had no time to negotiate. The sealing moved floor by floor. By the time she reached her third-floor flat, the lower floors had already been locked. In panic, she stuffed what she could into a trolley and a few bags. Her room was sealed in front of her, leaving behind her passport, driving licence, appliances and groceries for the month. Her mother, who had come to help her settle in the new city, was on the terrace during the operation and had no idea what was unfolding downstairs. That night, the two frantically searched for a place to stay before finding a serviced apartment in Sushant Lok for Rs 2,800 a day. The shock was no less brutal for another 26-year-old corporate employee from Bhubaneswar, who was in her hometown when her landlord called on June 20. “I thought it was a rude joke,” she said. She had moved into the furnished 1BHK in Feb 2024 after repeatedly asking the owner and property manager if the building was legal. With no way to return in time, she sent a friend to rescue what he could. But because the keys were with her, he had to break the lock to enter. Even then, the property manager warned that the cost of the broken lock would be deducted from her security deposit. Her friend managed to take out documents, certificates and a few clothes before the building was sealed. Everything else — furniture, utensils and food — remains locked inside. Since then, she alleged, calls to her landlord have gone unanswered. Now staying in a hotel costing over Rs 1,600 a day, she spends her evenings after work searching for a new home. “My trust is broken. Not in brokers, not in landlords. After this, every house feels uncertain,” she told TOI. Many tenants sought to know that when they followed the law, signed agreements and cleared police verification, why did they have to pay the price for buildings they never knew were illegal?
