Pune: Railways evict squatters who had occupied 17 of its residential quarters for years

“On August 22 and 23, the Pune Railway Division acted against the unauthorised people who had infringed upon unoccupied rooms of the railway staff quarters situated on Tadiwala road near the Divisional Railway Manager’s (DRM) office. These quarters lay vacant as they were not allotted to any railway staffer. Some of these were in bad shape and hence were not being used,” said Ramdas Bhise, Divisional Commercial Manager, also responsible for public relations.

A railway team under the supervision of DRM Indu Dubey, Additional Divisional Railway Manager B K Singh and other Pune Division railway officials inspected the quarters on August 22. “The railways has decided to conduct anti-encroachment drives to free its properties from unauthorised occupation. The first drive was undertaken on Tuesday and Wednesday in some locations of Tadiwala road. We have successfully evicted the unauthorised people from 17 quarters within two days,” said Bhise. To ensure that the abandoned quarters from where illegal occupants were evicted are not encroached again, the authorities have removed doors and windows of the ground-floor quarters and damaged the toilets to discourage the squatters from occupying them again.