Haldwani demolitions: BJP, Congress welcome stay, but blame each other for situation

BJP spokesperson and Uttarakhand Waqf Board chairman Shadab Shams also welcomed the decision, saying that if the Supreme Court had not given interim relief, they would have gone to court to save the 18 waqf properties in the affected area. Shams said the Waqf Board would be happy to help in the rehabilitation of the people if needed.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said it was the government’s belief from the start that since the matter was in court, the government would have worked with its decision. “We would follow whatever the court says,” he said.

The events leading to the demolition order began with the filing of a PIL in 2013 by one Ravi Shankar Joshi, claiming that illegal mining was being carried out in the area, which had caused a bridge collapse on the Gaula River. In 2016, the Uttarakhand government submitted an affidavit, claiming that it owned the land as it does not have any demarcation. This review petition was, however, dismissed.

Over 4,000 families have been served eviction notices and given seven days to vacate the area, following an order to that effect issued by the Uttarakhand High Court. (Source: Twitter/@ShayarImran)

Later in 2016, the state Congress government and local MLA Indira Hridayesh promulgated an Act to regularise illegal urban colonies in the state, in response to demolition orders issued for a slum in Dehradun. Under this Act, all unregularised colonies established before 2016, whether on land belonging to the state, the Railways or defense, were either to be regularised, or the residents rehabilitated before any demolitions could be carried out.

According to Sumit Hridayesh, a few months ago, the Nagar Nigam removed around 20 of the 600 identified bastis (slums) from the Act’s purview.

Last month’s 176-page high court ruling, which authorised “use of force” to evict over 4,000 families from the land claimed by the Railways, commented on the state’s earlier intervention. “Owing to the certain most reckoned political shield, which was then (sic) being provided by the then ruling party for its political gains to the unauthorised occupants, just to secure its vote bank, the state itself had filed a review petition, for no subsisting and valid reasons… seeking review of the judgment dated 9th November, 2016, which was dismissed by the division bench vide its judgment dated 10th January, 2017…” said the court.

Earlier, several residents of the affected area had claimed that removing them and demolishing their homes was vendetta politics by the ruling BJP for them voting for the Congress. “In the 2021 Vidhan Sabha elections, most of the votes from Banbhoolpura went to Congress candidate Sumit Hridayesh. He got around 30,000 votes from here, while the BJP got just a few hundred votes. This is why the government wants to give us a message. This is vendetta politics,” said a local.

Reacting to the allegations, the BJP’s Shadab Shams said it was the Congress that had used the issue for vote bank politics, instead of solving the problem, to ensure the people kept living in fear and voted for them. He accused the Congress of doing politics on the issue by creating confusion. “This was all the Congress’s doing. When the PIL was filed in 2013, the Congress was in government at both the state and the Centre. If the Congress had taken the right decision, this would not have happened. They have only indulged in vote bank politics and kept the people in fear. Instead of trying to solve the issue, Congress leader Indira Hridayesh filed a review petition. The Congress settles people illegally so that they can get their votes by keeping them in fear of eviction,” Shams said.

In 2002, when the first Vidhan Sabha elections were held in Uttarakhand, Indira Hridayesh won Haldwani by a margin of 3,058 votes, defeating the BJP’s Banshidhar Bhagat. In 2007, Bhagat defeated Indira by 4,235 votes. In 2012, Indira again won the seat with a massive margin of 23,583 votes, defeating the BJP’s Renu Adhikari. While the margin of votes fell to 6,557 in 2017, Indira again won Haldwani, defeating the BJP’s Jogendra Pal Singh Rautela.

After the June 2021 death of Indira Hridayesh – who was one of the most senior Congress leaders from the hill state and a Leader of Opposition in the Assembly – her son Sumit was given the Haldwani ticket by the Congress. In the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections, Sumit secured 50,116 (50.18 per cent) votes to defeat the BJP’s Rautela by 7,814 votes. The number of votes received by Sumit was higher than what his mother had ever secured.

Talking to The Indian Express before the Supreme Court order, Sumit said the way the state government represented the people in the high court was alarming, and in case the people did not get relief through court, the state government would be solely responsible. “Looking at the way the government represented the people in the high court, we predicted that we will have to go to the Apex Court. The Railways originally submitted an affidavit claiming they own 29 acres of land here. But later, they claimed they own 78 acres. Haldwani is 70 per cent nazul land (government land used for non-agricultural purposes). Only 30 per cent land is registered or freehold. That’s why, rather than the people encroaching upon the land, it is the Railways that are the encroachers. In fact, going by their logic, the Railways own two-thirds of Haldwani. Hence, the misrepresentation by the state government is very alarming,” said Sumit.

Advocate Piyush Garg, who represented one of the intervenors in the matter, said the Railways does not have any documents that show the extent of their land holdings, a fact that was not put strongly in the High Court. Advocate Tanveer Alam Khan said a map of 1883 presented by the Railways shows the PSU owns only 32.78 acres of land in the area. “This land includes the railway station and the railway lines. Subtract the land currently used by the Railways from those 32.78 acres. That should be the Railways claim,” said Khan.

Several residents have also claimed that their properties were purchased from the government via auction of properties left by those who had emigrated to Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. Advocate Khan added that the affected residents have produced documents in court showing they have freehold rights on the properties.

Sumit alleged that the BJP is trying to send a message to the people for votingfor the Congress. “They have slogans like ”Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, and ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, but act exactly the opposite of what they preach. What they are doing is a hundred per cent vendetta politics. We are hopeful and believe in due process. If the affected people still don’t get relief, the state government would be solely responsible,” he said.

Read this article in Gujarati here