By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun/Nainital, 3 May: Taking suo moto cognisance, while hearing a PIL, the Uttarakhand High Court has directed the state government to ensure removal of all encroachments from government lands. The Court has also directed the government to create an app to give information about encroachment to the people. The matter was heard by a High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Thapliyal. The government has been directed to submit its response by 7 May in this regard.
It may be recalled that the issue of large scale encroachment on river beds and nullahs in the state has been a matter of great concern and, from time to time, the High Court has also taken serious note of this and has been directing strict action against the encroachments. A large number of migrants from several parts of the country and even from Bangladesh and Rohingyas have settled in illegally built slums on government properties in general and on river banks and nullahs in particular. Intelligence sources report that Uttarakhand has a big population of illegal settlers. They also claim that many of the illegal settlements have been built with active support of local MLAs and municipal corporators in connivance with revenue and municipal officials. Whenever the Court takes a tough stand on this issue, the government begins anti-encroachment drives but these fade away without fulfilling the target of freeing all government land from encroachment. The political patronage to these encroachments has been particularly evident since the formation of the state and even more so after 2006.
Now pressure has again been created from the High Court to take action. The bench of Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal has directed the government to immediately remove the encroachments on the lands of Forests, the Municipal and Panchayat land, the PWD, Irrigation and Revenue department properties and from river banks and nullahs. The government has also been directed to create an app where the people can register their complaints about the encroachment.
While hearing a PIL, the High Court has sought a reply from the government by 7 May. It was brought to the notice of the Court that, in Dehradun, large scale illegal settlements have been formed by encroachment on Rispana, Bindal and other rivers and the nullahs as a result of which the capital city has not only become ugly but the natural drainage system in the city has also been destroyed.
The latest such drive had begun early this year when after the dissolution of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation following the completion of the term of the corporation, the administration constituted a task force. Some exercise was done but it was never taken up seriously. In fact, not an inch of encroached land was freed by this task force. Many vested interests including the local leaders of all political hues as well as some officers have been blocking this drive. In the end, the drive failed because, on most occasions, this year, the municipal teams reached the encroached areas with JCBs and bulldozers but returned empty handed as they had arrived without any supporting police teams. The encroachers protest and the teams return without demolishing any encroachment on most occasions.
The PIL mentions that in Dehradun itself, illegal settlements have been identified at more than a hundred places along the river banks and on the nullahs. Thousands of outsiders have occupied the banks of fourteen rivers and about two dozen nullahs in Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Haridwar districts and these possessions are being sold off illegally on a regular basis. Thousands of people have illegally encroached on the banks of Gaula River in Haldwani’s Kathgodam.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has stated several times that the anti-encroachment campaign will continue in Uttarakhand, but this resolution is missing in action. Initially, about five thousand acres of forest land was freed last year from illegal encroachment but that drive was seen restricted to the forests. Since then, nothing much has happened. One will recall that following a strict direction by the High Court, a massive statewide anti-encroachment drive was launched in 2018 but that too was stopped midway. During that drive, over 800 shops in Prem Nagar and some other areas were demolished despite a strong protest but, even then, slum colonies on river banks were spared.
Now it remains to be seen how the state administration will fulfil the directions of the High Court.
