The High Court of Uttarakhand has warned against politics following its orders but observers point out that the order regarding removal of encroachment from railway land in Haldwani has once again elicited focus on the role of politicians in encroachments. Successive State governments of both the national parties did little concrete to prevent encroachment along the Rispana and Bindal rivers and other areas in the provision state capital Dehradun. With varied irregularities being purportedly executed to facilitate consistent creation and expansion of slums, the total number of such slums in the State is presently stated to be about 513 with a population of about 20 lakh. The current state government had constituted a State Slum Settlement Development Committee to conduct the task of preparing its report on the status of such settlements and measures for their regularisation by the State Government. The Congress-led state government has also initiated the procedure for the regularisation of slum settlements in Uttarakhand though various questions are being raised on varied aspects of the same. Chief minister Harish Rawat has himself stated on more than one occasion in public meets that that state government has not only made provision in the year’s budget for systematisation of slum settlements but is also creating a corpus fund of Rs 400 crore.
Observers point out that even after the disaster experienced in June 2013 and the order of the high court regarding construction along rivers after that, the encroachment activity has continued unabated in various parts of the state. A government official on condition of anonymity said that considerable demographic changes are being brought about by encroachments which result in creation of slums and then further expansion of the same.
With politicians continuing to view people as ‘vote banks’ to be settled and provided facilities in slums to their own detriment and environmental degeneration, it remains to be seen whether the future will bring any proactive change in this sphere in Uttarakhand.