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Haldwani: Officials demarcate ‘encroached’ railway land in Banbhulpura
The Supreme Court on January 5 stayed the proposed eviction, calling it a “human issue”, adding that 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight
A joint team of railway authorities, revenue officials, local civic body officials and forest department officials on Sunday carried out demarcation of the encroached railways land in Banbhulpura area of Haldwani in Nainital district amid heavy deployment of police.
The team demarcated the encroached land based on the 1959-map of the area and marked the boundary points with red colour. The demarcation was carried out in the presence of local representatives and Nanital additional district magistrate (ADM) Ashok Joshi.
Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal, district magistrate of Nainital, said, “On Saturday, talks were held with the representatives and organisations of Banbhulpura for the smooth conduct of demarcation of the encroached land. Accordingly, the demarcation was carried out peacefully on Sunday,” he said
Meanwhile, one of the petitioners Abdul Malik in the plea before the Supreme Court said that before Independence, the railway track in the area was on the riverside, but it was washed away during floods. Then the railways laid the track near the populated area nearly 100-150 feet away. For this reason, the old railway track should not be considered for measurement during the demarcation.”
Also Read:Demolition cannot be the answer to encroachment
On December 31, railway authorities issued notice to the people of Banbhulpura to remove 4,365 encroachments within seven days, failing which the demolition process will be started. The proposed demolition of the encroachments on railway land would have affected over 50,000 people living there, and residents staged massive protests demanding that the government should first rehabilitate them before ‘uprooting’ them.
The matter originally pertains to a PIL filed by Haldwani-based social activist Ravi Shankar Joshi in 2013, in which the high court had in 2016 ordered the encroachments on railway land be removed. In March 2022, he filed a fresh PIL, to which the court in May gave a 2-week timeline to the affected people to present documents stating their ownership.
On December 20, the high court ordered the demolition of the encroachments while hearing a petition filed by Joshi.
However, the Supreme Court on January 5 stayed the proposed eviction, calling it a “human issue”, adding that 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight. The top court also issued notices to the railways and Uttarakhand government seeking their responses to a bunch of pleas challenging the high court order. The matter has been posted for further hearing on February 7.
