Uttarakhand— Over 4,000 families, mostly Muslims, living on Railways land in the Banbhulpura area of Haldwani district may berendered homeless by an order of the High Court for demolition of “construction on Railways land”. According to sources, the “encroachments” include around 20 mosques and nine temples and schools.
Following the issuance of the order by the Uttarakhand High Court, the Railway Department is all set to send eviction notices to over 4,300 families who have been living in unauthorised colonies near Haldwani Railway Station.
As soon as the people learned about the court order and fearful of the destruction of their homes, they came out in the bitter cold to protest on the streets in the hope of receiving justice from the government. Represented in large numbers among the protestors were women and elderly people, primary school children and youth. Holding placards carrying slogans expressing their despair, the people demanded justice. Many families could also be seen crying.
The High Court’s order has been challenged in the Supreme Court, and the apex court will hear the petition on 5 January. Many people, including Haldwani MLA Sumit Hridayesh, and the Samajwadi Party state in-charge Abdul Matin Siddiqui, have approached the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court. MLA Sumit Hridayesh, whose lawyer is Salman Khurshid, has stated thathis petition has been accepted by the Supreme Court and that the matter will be heard on 5 January.
Trilochan Bhatt (58) who is from Uttarakhand and closely follows political affairs and current events, told The Mooknayak, “These people [those living on Railways land in Haldwani] have been living there for the past several years. They began settling there in 1935, and since then until today, the total population there has increased to about 50,000. Most of the people here are minorities".
“The Railways is saying that this is their land, whereas some of the people living there even have papers documenting their land leases. The High Court accepted some plan from 1969 that the Railways presented in the court and passed the order for removal of the ‘encroachments’. Even though the Railways didn’t have any substantive documents regarding the land other than this plan, the court made a decision in its favour.” Bhatt further explained, “About 50,000 people live here [Haldwani] in five bastis [settlements]. The government has just sent notices to them without making any statement about where such a large number of people will go. They have been given a week’s time.”
Trilochan Bhatt believes the political motive behind the order is that BJP has never managed to have an MLA elected from this constituency (Haldwani Assembly). “Mostly the MLAs elected here have been from Congress. That’s why all this is happening. There are about 20,000 voters in this township of 50,000 people from minority backgrounds. That is why this political game is being played. By law if someone is being evicted, you need to make alternative arrangements elsewhere for them, but such is not happening anywhere in this state.”
Salim Malik, resident of Ramnagar, told The Mooknayak, “It is a complete trap. The reason behind the decision is that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not able to win the Haldwani MLA assembly seat. There is a very large Muslim population here and the majority of votes are split between just the Samajwadi Party and the Congress. In such a situation, the BJP does not manage to get votes at all. In this matter BJP is not at the front but behind. They think that if this population of 50,000 leaves here by any means then it will be good for them.”
“This population (Muslim community) does not vote for them (BJP) at all. That’s why an effort is being made to make this a Hindu versus Muslim matter. Because both the Hindus and the Muslims here are not in favour of people being made to leave. It is a very catastrophic game”, Malik continued.
He then explained that there was another reason behind the order. “There is ongoing privatisation of railway stations. After forcing the people to leave from here, the value of this area will increase, due to which it would fetch a tidy sum. So there may be a game behind all this”.
Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM chief,has criticised this move of the government. He said, “How can this be an encroachment, given that there are three government inter colleges in the area?”
In another tweet from the official AIMIM Twitter handle, he said “According to humanity, Prime Minister @narendramodi should help the people of Haldwani, Uttarakhand, and not evict them from there. What kind of humanity is it to take away the roof from over the heads of the people of Haldwani?
AIMIM Uttarakhand president Nayyar Kazmi also visited Haldwani to meet the families living on the Railways land. He has extended his full support to them.
In a press conference, former MLA Qazi Nizamuddin said, “Earlier it was stated that this land was about 29 acres, but later it was said to be 79 acres. Gafoor Basti has had a temple, an overhead tank, a Shishu Mandir and a sewer line for more than 60 years. If this is Railways land, how was the overhead tank and sewer line built here? Sale deeds were issued for the land, so how did the government take the revenue? Wasn’t it Railways land then? There is alsoWaqf Board property here.” He added that the government will have to take steps to rehabilitate these people. A humane approach should be adopted towards them and they should not be left homeless.
As hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the demolition of the termed “illegal encroachments”, Congress, in the form of the opposition, is standing firmly with the people here. Earlier, the occupants of the land had been supported by the late Congress leader Indira Hridayesh and now it is her son Sumit Hridayesh, who is carrying on with her legacy, and who is also standing with the occupants in this matter.
According to information, on the instructions of the Samajwadi Party national president, former CM of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, a delegation of Samajwadi Party [SP] will reach Haldwani on Wednesday in regard to the Railways land issue. The ten-member delegation will include MP S.T. Hasan, MLA Ataur Rahman, ex-MP Virpal Singh, State SP in-charge Abdul Matin Siddiqui, State General Secretary Shoaib Ahmed, and the State Vice President Suresh Parihar.
The SP state in-charge Matin Siddiqui has said thatin a conversation with the national president, he was informed about the episode. Here, Uwais Raza of Banbhulpura Sangharsh Samiti handed over the memorandum to CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. The memorandum includes a request for humane oversight ofthe people involved in the Haldwani Railways land “encroachment”.
Regarding the proposed action against the “encroachments”, the officials from Nainital district have said that a total of 4,365 encroachments (number of families) will be cleared from the area. Many families who have been living in these houses for decades are strongly opposing this order. At the same time, railway officials have said that they have started the process of demolishing the houses and other structures built over the 2.2 km-long railway track.
The local administration has stated that this land belongs to the Railways and Gafoor Basti was settled on it by “illegal encroachment”. Following the order from the High Court to demolish this encroachment, the residents of the colony have been protesting here. The protesters are accusing the administration of rendering them homeless in the harsh winter. They are demanding that prior to demolishing the encroachment, the administration should make arrangements for their relocation and settle them elsewhere before removal of the encroachment. At present, the administration has halted the process of demolition until January 10.
The administration has stated, “About 4500 families have been encroaching on Railways land. Now, when this encroachment is being removed from Gafoor Basti, these people are crying out about being made homeless. They have come out on the streets to protest, and to plead. The whole incident is also being vigorously played out on social media. Because of this, an atmosphere of tension has been created. In most videos, girls can be heard crying because of being denied education and women for being rendered homeless.”
Uttarakhand High Court passed the order to demolish the encroachments on the Railways land in Gafoor Basti, Banbhulpura, Haldwani, on 27 December 2022. A time period of a weekwas stipulated for the demolition. Along with this, the people of Banbhulpura were also been asked to deposit any licensed weapons. The Supreme Court had also expressed concern in December 2021 regarding the encroachment on Railways land and issued an order to vacate the land at the earliest.
It is being said that the Railways land in the area started to become occupied in 1975. To settle on this land, temporary shacks were first built here, which were later converted into pucca [built] houses. In the same way, gradually places of worship and hospitals were constructed here. But when this settlement was happening, the railway administration did not take any step against it. Once the settlements had happened, in 2016, after strict action from the Nainital High Court, the Railway Protection Force filed a case against the illegal settlements, but by then thousands of people were living there.
Story Translated By Lotika Singha
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