Apply for PMAY houses, SC tells Haldwani station squatters | India News
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked illegal occupants of more than 30 hectares of railway/state land in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani to apply for houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and rejected their resettlement pleas on the grounds that additional land was available for expansion.Appearing for the occupants, advocate Prashant Bhushan said they have been living there for decades and at one point the state government had proposed to regularize their houses. “There is spare land in the vicinity which can be used for expansion of the railway project,” he said.However, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Jaimalya Bagchir said, “These are government lands. Just because the authorities are sleeping over the possession, it does not become your land.” When it’s public land, it’s up to the state to decide how to use it, and squatters can’t use it. “The only question is when there are humanitarian concerns, what is the best solution to the problem. Concerns give rise to a privilege, not a right,” it said.The court recorded that approximately 30 hectares of land, owned by the Indian Railways/State, was allegedly encroached upon. Moreover, 4,365 houses are said to have been constructed at the site, housing more than 50,000 people.Reacting to SC’s earlier directive to identify land for resettlement of unauthorized squatters, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti said that finding land in the hilly state was difficult but added that if squatters applied for houses under PMAY, eligible persons would be allotted houses in the province or state units.The bench recorded an offer to the Railways and the state government to pay Rs 2,000 per month for each dilapidated house for six months to enable their residents to take up premises on rent. The counselor said that the camp could be set up after March 19.
