Immense relief to Haldwani residents. Apex Court stays Uttarakhand High Court’s decision to demolish the encroachments on Railway land in Haldwani !

The supreme Court of India today stayed the orders of the Uttarakhand High Court regarding demolition of the houses of 4, 375 families literally affecting more than 60 thousand people, majority of them being from the minority community. The Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had said that his government will duly obey the orders of High Court and demolish the illegal constructions on Railway land as directed.

Meanwhile the bench of Supreme Court comprising of justices Sanjay Kaul and Abhay S. Oka issued notices to the government of Uttarakhand and Indian Railways saying that this is a humanitarian problem and needs to be addressed taking into account methodology, not by uprooting fifty thousand people overnight and arranging for their adequate rehabilitation.

The bench favouring consideration of the humane approach said that the people have been living here for the last 60 to 70 years and have bought the land out of auction.

The uprooted people have to be rehabilitated adequately . There must be a culmination to the issue and we do not encourage what is going on.

The bench was very catagorical in its decision pointing towards the govt authorities which includes Railways saying that what is troubling us is how you deal with a situation where people bought the land in auction and took possession after 1947 and acquired the title. You ( Railways) may acquire the land but what to do now? The affected population will have to be rehabilitated first .

There should be culmination to the issue and we do not encourage what is going on said the Supreme Bench.

The next hearing us due for February 7. The bench was very particular about the human angle to be adopted by the government on this issue saying that you ( Railways) can’t just uproot 60000 people overnight.

This was in response to the Aditional Solicitor General Aishwarya Rai’s argument that the land in question belongs to the Railways and the Kathgodam Railway Station doesn’t have any land for the expansion in view of the encroachment by more than 400 families.

But despite all this – what is surprising to note is that there are five government schools, two huge overhead tanks and one big government hospital in this land including several private schools and institutions and people have been paying taxes to the government since independence.

Where were these authorities for the last 70 years when these constructions took place and people were paying taxes. Were the authorities sleeping , question people ?

The case in the supreme Court as SLP was filed by the son of the former veteran leader of Congress n ex minister Insurance Hridayesh after the Uttarakhand High Court had issued directives for uprooting the 60000 people authorising the government to use paramilitary as well local police to evacuate the encroachers within a week’s time.

There are more than 55 thousand Muslim voters in Haldwani amd majority of the population of Banphoolpura being affected by this high Court’s decision are the people of minority community.

Meanwhile the former chief minister of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat has welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to grant stay to the demolition of the people of Banphoolpura of Haldwani.

According to ANI on Supreme Court’s judgement Harish Rawat said Judgement of SC will protect human rights. We all were worried about demolition rendering 52000 people homeless. SC stayed the demolition. In 2016, we took steps regarding the rehabilitation of the people.