On ‘encroached’ Railway land in Haldwani, 4,000 families, 3 govt schools, 1 PHC

Residents of Banbhulpura hold a candle march to protest for their demands following the order of Uttarakhand High Court on removing the encroachment near Haldwani railway station, on Monday. (ANI Photo)

Since then, hundreds of people, mostly women, have been turning up after the afternoon namaz to protest in Haldwani, asking for the demolition process, scheduled for January 8, to be stopped. The appeals challenging the demolition will be heard in the Supreme Court on January 5.

The demolition order, which comes at the end of a protracted battle in the courts over the land, follows a High Court order last month asking for all encroachments along the railway line to be demolished. In 2016-17, a joint survey of the railways and the district administration had identified 4,365 ‘encroachments’ in the marked area.

Hundreds of people, mostly women, have been turning up after the afternoon namaz to protest in Haldwani, asking for the demolition process, scheduled for January 8, to be stopped.  (ANI Photo)

The Railways claims that they have old maps, a notification of 1959, revenue records from 1971 and the results of the 2017 survey to prove their ownership of the land.

The protesters, however, claim they have been living here for generations.

Khairunisa, 70, who is among the protesters, says she has spent her lifetime in the house that now faces the threat of demolition.

“I am here today and might not be around tomorrow; it’s my children and grandchildren that I am worried about. Where will they go if our house is demolished? Did the railways wake up only after houses, schools and hospitals were built on this land?,” she said.

Spread over a 2.2 km strip of land, the affected area covers the slums of Gafoor Basti, Dholak Basti and Indira Nagar – all falling under Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani — and is home to at least three government schools, 11 accredited private schools, 10 mosques, 12 madrassas, one government public health centre and one temple.

Waris Shah Khan, 61, a resident of Banbhoolpura, said, “The situation here is very bad. We are scared. On one side are all our homes and on the other the Gaula River. If our houses are demolished, where will we go?”

That’s the daunting question that the administration now faces.

At the Government Girls’ Inter College (GGIC), which has over 1,000 students and which now faces the prospect of demolition, a staff member says the college came up in 1952 as a junior high school before being made a high school in 2003 and an inter-college two years later.

“We have not received any official notification specifically for this school, but we have been told that this is under the area owned by the railways. If the school is demolished, I don’t know what our students will do,” he said.

Salauddin Ansari, a member of the parent council at the school, said, “My elder daughter Iram completed her education from this school and now my daughters Ikra and Unjila are studying here. If the school is gone, I don’t know where they will study. This is the best girls’ college in the area.”

The Government Inter College (GIC) in Indira Nagar also stands on the affected land. According to the school staff, there are around 2,000 students enrolled in the school.

Around 200 metres away is the Shiv Gopal Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir that runs on the premises of a Shiva temple and has 140 students.

“We are worried. However, the district administration has promised to shift us to another school in a 500-metre radius. We will have to share space with another school. This will definitely cause problems. The school has been running for over four decades and we have been maintaining records of every student. We do not know where we will keep our documents, computers and books,” said a member of the school management.

According to data provided by Nainital District Magistrate Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal, there are at least 11 such accredited schools in the affected area with 2,333 students in all. Garbiyal said plans have been made to shift these schools to existing ones situated “at a distance ranging from 200 metres to 1.5 kilometres”.

“We have already identified a place (near Lalit Arya Kanya Inter College) and will create prefabricated structures to continue classes for now,” said SDM Manish Singh.

Talking to The Indian Express, Vivek Gupta, Railway Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Izzat Nagar, said the case landed in court in 2013, when a petition was filed regarding illegal sand mining in the Gaula River that flows along the Haldwani railway station.

“With the writ petition came the question of who are the people who are involved in illegal mining and why is it happening, and it was found that people living along the railway line were indulging in such practices. The Railways was then made a party and the High Court directed us to get the land cleared. The residents then went to the Supreme Court, which directed the High Court to listen to their side too. Last month, after hearing all the parties, the High Court once again found that the land belongs to the Railways and should be cleared after a week’s notice. We now have to follow the order,” said Gupta, adding that the Railways needs this land to provide more trains for the Kumaon area.

When asked how so many houses, mosques, temples, and even government institutions were allowed to be opened in the first place on the land claimed by the Railways, Gupta expressed “regret” and said, “This (encroachment along railway lines) is a nationwide phenomenon. We regret this. Except for a few, these are mostly soft encroachments. From the side of the Railways, we regret that so many encroachments came up,” he said.