India, in the state of Uttarakhand the Supreme Court blocks the eviction of 50 thousand people along the railway

NEW DEHLI (AsiaNews/AsiaNews) – The Supreme Court of India yesterday ruled a hotly contested eviction of a large area of ​​homes, considered abusive by the High Court of the State of Uttarakhand – a state in Northern India crossed by the Himalayan mountain range – although in some cases they have been inhabited for more than 50 years. The story concerns some land owned by the Indian railways in the Haldwani district, on which as many as 50,000 people currently live, including many Muslims. Spontaneous settlements along the Indian railways are a widespread phenomenon: it is estimated that every year about a thousand people die falling from trains, due to overcrowding of the carriages. A similar number of victims every year also affects people, especially children, who live in the slums close to the tracks. Dharavi – for example – one of the slums in Mumbai, covers an area of ​​1.7 km², is considered one of the largest in the world and the largest in Asia. The population is estimated between 600,000 and over 1 million inhabitants, there are no official censuses. 60% of Mumbai’s population lives in shantytowns.

“You can’t uproot 50,000 people like that.” On 20 December, the Uttarakhand High Court had ordered the railway authorities to remove the unauthorized structures, after giving a week’s notice to the occupants. Several petitions had been filed against the ordinance. Yesterday, therefore, the Supreme Court observed that “you cannot uproot 50,000 people in seven days” and “if people have been living there for 50-60 years, it is necessary to carry out some rehabilitation programme, even if it concerns railway land”. . The judges asked the government of Uttarakhand – led by the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party – and Indian Railways to respond to the petitions and postponed the matter to a further hearing set for February 7.

On the land 5 public schools and a hospital. In the reasons presented to the Supreme Court we read that the petitioners claim to have paid the tax on the house for years and to be in possession of Aadhaar cards (Indian identity documents) which indicate the locality as their address. There are also five public schools, a hospital and two elevated water tanks on the grounds. The legal dispute allegedly began in 2013 with a petition against an illegal sand extraction in the Gaula River, next to the Haldwani railway station. The scope of the case would later be expanded to include all alleged trespassing in the railway station area.