Wednesday, 04 January 2023 | PNS | Dehradun
Senior leader of the Congress party and MLA from Chakrata, Pritam Singh led a delegation which met chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on the issue of the planned eviction of thousands of families in Haldwani. The delegation handed over a memorandum to the CM and demanded that strong advocacy of the affected families should be done in the Supreme Court. Singh said that the Indian Railways in its affidavit had informed that the land area under encroachment is 28 acres but the eviction action is spread across 78 acres. He said that residents of Dholak Basti, Gafoor Basti, Chirag Ali Shah Basti, Indira Nagar east and west have been residing there for the last 50 years. Singh added that the municipal corporation has set up many basic facilities like community centres and power lines while sewer and other facilities have also been established in the area and in such a situation it is not justified to remove the residents from the area. The Congress leader reminded the CM that the then government had saved the slums by bringing in an ordinance. The Pratapnagar MLA Vikram Singh Negi, former MLA Vijay Pal Sajwan, Raj Kumar, Mahesh Joshi and Rajendra Shah were in the delegation.
It is pertinent to mention here that about 4,500 families are being served one-week notice to evict the railway land they have encroached upon in Haldwani, failing which the authorities will demolish the encroachments. The action is being taken as per the orders of the Uttarakhand High Court.
