“There cannot be uprooting of 50,000 people overnight… it’s a human issue, some workable solution needs to be found,” the Supreme Court said and this order saved thousands of people living near the Haldwani railway station from getting evicted after the Uttarakhand High Court ordered for evicting people living in 4000 homes.
On referring to the High Court order Supreme Court suggests that “it may not be correct to say that paramilitary forces have to be deployed to remove people who have been living there for decades.”
The area in dispute covers a 2km strip of land near the Haldwani railway station- Gafoor Basti, Dholak Basti and Indira Nagar, in Banbhulpura area. Nearly half of the families are claiming to possess a land lease, the area has 4 government schools, 11 private schools, a bank, 2 overhead water tanks, 10 mosques and 4 temples.
The matter went to court in 2013 after a petition was filed about illegal sand mining in a river near the area. The district administration according to court order of December 20th after that a notice was issued in the newspaper that advised people to take away their things by January 9th.
Many activists and politicians had joined the protests, after a long struggle these people have found relief and were saved by the Supreme Court.