By Sunil Sonker
Mussoorie,16 Jul: Tension spread in Mussoorie’s Jhadipani area after the Northern Railway issued eviction notices to several families, asking them to submit their reply within seven days under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
On Thursday, a team of Railway Estate officials, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and local police visited the area to serve notices. Their arrival led to protests by local residents, who questioned why they were being called illegal occupants.
Residents said they have registered sale deeds, municipal mutation records and have been paying taxes for years. They argued that if their documents were invalid, the authorities should not have accepted them in the first place. Many families said they had invested their lifetime savings to build their homes and now fear losing everything.
The Railway maintains that the families are occupying railway land without authorisation and therefore eviction notices have been issued under the law. However, railway officials did not make any official statement to the media during Thursday’s visit.
Residents have announced that they will approach the court if the eviction process moves forward. They say no family should be displaced until the ownership of the land is legally settled.
The Jhadipani railway land dispute is not new. Similar notices have been issued in the past, with residents claiming ownership based on their documents while the Railway continues to assert that the land belongs to it.
The next seven days will be crucial as affected families submit their replies. Based on the responses, the Railway Estate Officer will decide whether to proceed with the eviction process or not. If the matter reaches court, the long-pending land dispute is likely to enter another round of legal proceedings.
