The High Court ordered the authorities to evict unauthorised occupants of the railway land adjacent to Haldwani Railway Station, known as Gaffur Basti, which is predominantly Muslim.
Huneza Khan | TwoCircles.net
NEW DELHI — After the Uttarakhand High Court directed the removal of over 4,000 houses in a predominantly Muslim-populated area, hundreds of residents on December 28 poured onto the streets to protest the decision.
A division bench of Justices Sharad Sharma and R.C. Khulbe pronounced the verdict on December 20. The High Court ordered the respondent authorities to evict the “unauthorised occupants” of the railway land adjacent to Haldwani Railway Station, known as Gaffur Basti. The court order gave residents of Gaffur Basti a week’s time to vacate.
In its order, the court has ordered the demolition of 4,365 buildings, which it claims is built by “encroachment on 78 acres of railway land.”
As per reports, 23 crores would be spent on this campaign. Bulldozers will “pounce on encroachers” in the midst of 7,000 police officers and 15 paramilitary groups.
On Wednesday (December 28), thousands of people including women and children hit the streets in the city to register their protest against the order.
The protesters said the removal of encroachments will render them homeless and jeopardise the future of their school-going children. A large number of women, children and the elderly are among those affected by the removal of encroachments.
Reports said that around 29 acres of railway land is encroached in the area and a masterplan is ready to remove the encroachments from the land in compliance with the court’s order.
As per PTI, residents of the Banbhoolpura area living on the encroached railway land were asked on Tuesday (December 27) to deposit their licensed weapons to the administration before the process of removal of encroachments from the land begins.
Several political parties have lent their support to the protesters. Congress MLA from Haldwani, Sumit Hridayesh, and Samajwadi Party in-charge Abdul Matin Siddiqui and general secretary Shoeb Ahmad are backing the protesters.
The general secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also arrived at the demonstration site and extended support to the protesters.
Dr. Nayyar Kazmi, State President of the All India Majlis-e-Etihad ul Muslimeen, Uttarakhand (AIMIM), wrote to the state’s Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, over the railway department’s encroachment in Indira Nagar, Banbhulpura, Haldwani, and the decision to demolish the old township.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, he stated that over 4,500 families have lived here for more than seventy-eight decades and have electricity connections, house taxes, Jal Sansthan connections, and other residential credentials.
“In order to spare thousands of families from being wrecked by this one-sided decision, the government should also bring the side of these aggrieved families before the High Court, so that they can be saved from being homeless,” he said in the letter.
In a post on Facebook, a user Umair Siddiqui said around 50,000 people will be rendered homeless.
“In Haldwani, thousands of families are being destroyed in the name of removing the encroachment at the railway land. 50,000 people will be made homeless,” he said.
A candlelight march was also taken on Thursday (December 29) against the decision, as per Siddiqui.
Meanwhile, a well-known Congress leader from Delhi, Advocate Aarfa Khanam, accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state of targeting the area because most of the residents are Muslims.
Khanam said they respect the judiciary, “but what kind of justice is this that you make fifty thousand people homeless but you didn’t make any arrangements for their rehabilitation.”
Huneza Khan is a student and a budding journalist from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. She tweets @KhanHuneza