Sharafat Khan, resident of a locality in Haldwani town of Uttarakhand, and 10 others have filed a petition in Supreme Court demanding immediate intervention on eviction notices served to over 4,000 families by the Indian Railways. The petition was mentioned in SC on Monday and will be heard on January 5.
The petitioners told The Hindu that the land they are living in, in Banbhoolpura, belongs to them and not to the Railways.
“I am living here for 30 years. There are some families who have had their house on this land for six or seven decades. We have papers for our land. We pay taxes,” said Mr. Khan who added that among the 4,000 families who have been served notices, around 1,000 are Hindus while 3,000 are Muslims.
According to officials of the Railways, the two-kilometer stretch, where these families stay, belongs to them hence the “illegal houses built on the land have to be demolished“ to do development activities.
“The stretch of also has a 50-year-old temple, a 70-year-old Sahu Dharamshala (community center), and a Shivgopal temple. It also has eight mosques, two government inter-colleges, two primary schools, one junior high school, half a dozen private schools, one primary hospital, a 1970s sewer line, the community building of the current BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation built in the year 2000 iduring the Congress government and an overhead tank. They will destroy all of this,” wrote Imran Pratapgarhi, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra on his Twitter handle while extending support to the protesters.
Rajendra Singh, Public Relations Officer of Indian Railways (Izzat Nagar), told The Hindu thatall those residing on railway land have been served eviction notices and will have to vacate within a week.
“The eviction notice has been served to those who live or have occupied 4,365 establishments in Banbhoolpura. This has been done on the orders of Nainital High Court that has asked us to removal of all the encroachment on railway land. We are fighting for this land for over 15 years now and we have all the proof that this piece of land belongs to Railways and not to the government or to these protesters,” Mr. Singh added.
Sumit Hriyadesh, Congress MLA from Haldwani, alleged that the State government has done nothing to help the residents of Haldwani and had readily agreed to give away this huge piece of land to Railways.
“The BJP-led Uttarakhand government told the HC that the land in Banbhoolpura belongs to railways. Its totally untrue,” said Mr. Hriyadesh who added that Congress will fight for the justice and will save the homes of the poor people who have no place to go in this bone-chilling winter.
