PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Haldwani
The hearing in the Vanbhulpura railway land encroachment case was deferred by the Supreme Court to December 10. The apex court heard the matter of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on Tuesday, due to which the case pertaining to the railway land encroachment in Haldwani could not be taken up.
The hearing scheduled for Tuesday was being viewed as decisive, considering the extent of the people to be affected and the area of the railway land under encroachment. Going by past experience and considering the sensitivity of the case, the Nainital district administration, police and railways had stepped up security in the Haldwani area. Considering the probability of the SC verdict not favouring the encroachers, the authorities had also made all arrangements to remove the encroachments. The Nainital senior superintendent of police Manjunath TC had also carried out an inspection of the area. However, the situation got clear by 4 PM on Tuesday with the Supreme Court deferring the date of hearing.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Vanbhulpura railway land encroachment elicited state-wide and national attention from 2023. The Railways claims that it has 29 acre land in the area, which has been encroached upon by 4,365 families. The Uttarakhand High Court had directed the removal of the encroachments in December 2023, after which the affected persons had approached the Supreme Court which had granted a stay on the demolitions.
