Officials, conducted the demarcation of the encroached railway land in the Banbhulpura area of Haldwani in Nainital district on Sunday.
Haldwani: Massive protests have been taking place by the residents of the Banbhulpura area of Haldwani in Nainital district amid an order by the railway authorities for their removal from the encroachment lands of the railways.
Regarding this, more than 50,000 people living in the area came onto the street and demanded that the government first rehabilitate them before ‘uprooting’ them.
Teams from various departments, like railways, revenue, the local civic body, and forest department officials, conducted the demarcation of the encroached railway land in the Banbhulpura area of Haldwani in Nainital district on Sunday in the presence of heavy police personnel. It was carried out peacefully, and no untoward incident occurred.
The entire team demarcated the encroached land on the basis of a 1959 map of the area. They also underlined the boundary points with red colour.
In the meantime, one of the petitioners, Abdul Malik, stated in his argument before the Supreme Court that the area’s railway track existed on the riverbed prior to Independence but washed away during floods. Then the railways laid the track close to the settlement, about 100–150 feet away. “The old rail track shouldn’t be used for measurement during the demarcation.”
Banbhulpura residents were given notice by railway authorities on December 31 to remove 4,365 encroachments within seven days, after that the demolition procedure would begin.
The matter stems from a PIL filed by social activist Ravi Shankar Joshi in Haldwani in 2013, for which the high court ordered the removal of encroachments on railway land in 2016. However, a fresh PIL was filed in March 2022, and the court, in May, gave the affected people two weeks to show their documents amid their ownership of land.
However, the Supreme Court stayed the proposal on January 5 and added that 50,000 people could not be removed overnight. The next hearing will take place on February 7.
