Coronavirus Crisis: Delhi tenants can now dial 100 if landlord harasses for rent during lockdown

New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The landlords in Delhi found forcing their migrant tenants to pay the rent can now be booked under Disaster Management Act, 2005, an order issued by the Government of Delhi on Wednesday stated.

The order has asked the landlords not to demand the rent for one month from the migrant workers and students residing in their houses as tenants – whose lives have been vigorously affected by the lockdown in place to contain the spread of Novel Coronavirus.

‘Action would also be taken if landlords force the students for immediate payment of the rent and threaten them with eviction,’ said the Delhi government order, while urging both the migrant workers and students living as tenants to dial 100 and inform the authorities if their landlords force them to pay the rent.

“Even during the lockdown, instances of landlords demanding house rents have come to the knowledge of the government. During this crisis, the workers who have been the worst hit need the support,” a Delhi Government official was quoted as saying by Times of India.

Mr. Vijay Dev, chief secretary of Delhi government has asked all the District Magistrates in the capital to execute the awareness campaign focused on this issue, specifically in the pockets of the capital where there is high tenant population – either comprised by migrant workers or students or both.

The officials have been directed to take strict action against the landlords who are found demanding the rent from migrant workers or students.

The Coronavirus crisis has caused phenomenal financial distress to the migrant population living in the capital, whose sources of livelihoods have been worst hit by the lockdown in place to contain the contagion spread. At such an extraordinary time of distress, the landlords demanding the rent just add to their adversities at the time of a crisis.

Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also urged the landlords to ‘show some compassion’ and postpone the house rent or take it in installments from the tenants in financial distress.