By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 2 Jan: Former CM and veteran Congress leader, Harish Rawat has written an open letter on social media to CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, protesting against forced eviction of people settled on Railway land in Dholak Basti, Banbhulpura in Haldwani. In his open letter, Rawat admitted that from purely a legal perspective, eviction of people settled on Railway property was just, but added that there was a human perspective also to be seen and considered in the case.
Rawat appealed to the Chief Minister to find a middle ground on the issue considering the human perspective of the case.
Harish Rawat said that the decision of the railways, administration and municipality to evict the people who have been settled for years is not just a legal issue but also has a human perspective which ought not be ignored. He added that Haldwani is the main centre of economic activities of Kumaon region and the state. The social harmony here has always been of a high level. If ignoring these facts, more than 50,000 persons are evicted in a forced manner, where will all of them go, he asked. Rawat claimed that in the eventuality of forced eviction, an atmosphere of unrest would prevail and spread across the Kumaon region. In his open letter, Rawat said that the government seemed determined to take away the roofs from the heads of 50 thousand person in this severe cold which is inhuman, and the decision was apparently based on “wrong interpretation of law”.
The veteran Congress leaders said that people are apparently silent at present over the injustice, but they will not hesitate to point fingers at the conscience of the government if the situation worsened for any reason. Rawat however added that he was not wanting to comment on the judicial decision but still had to state that as a guardian of the people of the state the Chief Minister ought to perform his duty as the guardian of the people. Rawat advised the CM to hold talks with the railway authorities on this issue and do something towards the resettlement of the evictees.
