Taking serious cognisance of cooperation required from the State Government in removal of encroachment on Indian Railway land at Haldwani, the High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital has directed the State Government to remove the said encroachment on railway land before February 10. In case the State Government is unable to provide the required assistance in removal of the encroachments, the railways should remove the said encroachment from its land with the help of the Central Government, the High Court stated. This order was passed by the high court in a review petition filed on behalf of the state government seeking a time-period of eight weeks for the task in question.
The high court also directed the election commission that in case there is any polling booth located on the land under encroachment, the booth should be shifted to another location. Similarly, if any board examination centres have been set up in the land encroached upon, these should be relocated to another site. Also taking serious cognisance of politicisation and statements made after the orders of the court are issued, the high court warned that the case in question should not be politicised.
It is pertinent to mention here that a resident of Haldwani, Ravishankar Joshi had filed a petition in the High Court of Uttarakhand stating that illegal quarrying business was being conducted on railway land in Gafoor Basti and Dholak Basti along with encroachment of the railway land. The High Court has already in the past issued orders for removal of the said encroachment from railway land in Haldwani.
On Tuesday, the counsel representing the railways informed the High Court that the required cooperation was not being received from the state government for the removal of encroachment. Finding the review petition filed by the State Government in this case as baseless, the High Court rejected the same. Further, the division bench comprising justice Rajeev Sharma and justice Alok Singh has directed the state government to facilitate removal of the encroachment from the railway land before February 10.