Haldwani's 4000 houses and temple mosque will not be demolished for now: Supreme Court said- there will be no action to remove encroachment for 8 weeks

The Supreme Court heard a petition against the Uttarakhand High Court's order to evict encroachers from the land claimed by the railway administration in Haldwani. The Uttarakhand government and the Railways sought time from the SC to find a solution to the matter, after which the court said that the encroachments in Haldwani will not be removed for 8 weeks. The next hearing in the case will be on May 2.

The matter was in the bench of Justice SK Kaul, and Justice Manoj Mishra. Even before this, on January 5, the Supreme Court had stayed the encroachment decision of the Uttarakhand High Court.

First, know what was the matter

People live on 29 acres of railway land in Banbhulpura of Haldwani. Railways had issued notices through newspapers asking the encroachers to remove the encroachments within a week i.e. by January 9. The Nainital High Court of Uttarakhand had ordered the demolition of this illegal encroachment. After this, more than 4,000 kutcha-pucca houses were to be demolished, but in December, some people protested against the court's order and approached the Supreme Court.

However, in the hearing held on January 5, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court's order to remove the encroachment. The court had said that displacement of 50 thousand people is not possible in 7 days.

This area around Haldwani Railway Station covers an area of more than 2 km. These areas are known as Gaffur Basti, Dholak Basti, and Indira Nagar. Half of the families here are claiming the lease of the land. The area has 4 government schools, 11 private schools, one bank, two overhead water tanks, 10 mosques, and four temples.

What is the claim of the railway and local administration

How was permission given to build on such a large scale on railway land? On this Railway Board official, Vivek Gupta said – Encroachment near railway lines is a nationwide problem. This case of encroachment on railway land reached the court in 2013. Then the petition came about illegal sand mining in a river near the locality.

Collector Dheeraj S Garbyal had said – People live here on railway land. They have to be removed. Preparation is going on. We have demanded additional security forces. Illegal encroachment will be removed soon. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said that his government will respect the decision of the Supreme Court. The police and the local administration said that they were following the order of the High Court.

Also Read: Ukraine War: Putin had threatened to attack Britain before Ukraine, Boris Johnson said – threatened me on the phone