The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the Chief Secretary of the State to ensure removal of encroachments from the banks of rivers, mountain streams and lakes within a period of three months.
All the district magistrates have also been directed to enforce this order while also ensuring that to prevent pollution in rivers, no vehicular parking should be allowed on the banks of the rivers.
According to the case details, resident of Laksar area of Haridwar, Rajpal Singh had filed a public interest litigation seeking removal of encroachments from the banks of the Solani river that flows through Adhipur Sikandar Gram Sabha in Laksar Tehsil.
After hearing the petition, the high court division bench directed the Haridwar district magistrate to remove the encroachments from the banks of the Solani river as per the regulations within a period of three months.
Directing that encroachments should not be allowed on river banks, the division bench disposed of the petition.
It is pertinent to mention here that encroachments on river banks are a major issue in Uttarakhand.
This had earlier elicited considerable focus after the 2013 disaster in the state. Observers point out that despite regulations and court orders in the past, the problem of encroachments along rivers in the state has not been addressed effectively.
In the provisional state capital Dehradun, the jeep taxis plying to mountainous regions are parked on the Rispana river bed andalong its bank not far from the Vidhan Sabha.