HSVP demolishes 35 structures in Karnal
Karnal, July 20
A tense situation prevailed at Valmiki Basti in Sector12 (II) here when a team of the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), along with police personnel, reached there to get the colony vacated. The team members demolished 35 structures and gave time to others to vacate it in compliance with the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Residents and opposition leaders, including AAP and the Congress, opposed the move and claimed that it was a step to make people ‘homeless’. Kasturi Devi, an elderly woman and resident of the colony said they had been living before the development of the sector here. They had been assured that nobody would get this basti vacated, but now, the government was making them homeless. On being asked that the government had given plots to them in Sector 16 for their rehabilitation, she said they had been asked to deposit money for the registration of land, passing of map, and instalment, but they did not have the money.
Have been asked to deposit money
We have been asked to deposit money for the registration of land, passing of map and instalment, but we do not have the money. —Kasturi Devi, Resident of the colony
Step to make people homeless
It was a step to make people homeless. The government should have made arrangements to rehabilitate them before taking this action. —Trilochan Singh, Cong Leader & Former chairperson of haryana minority commission
Had served notices on them
We have demolished the structures whose residents have shifted to Sector 16. We had already served notices on them. The land belongs to the HSVP and people have encroached upon it. —Deepak Ghanghas, Estate officer, HSVP
Balwinder Singh, councillor and AAP leader, said the government should have rehabilitated them before demolishing their basti.
Trilochan Singh, Congress leader and former chairperson of Haryana Minority Commission, said it was a step to make people homeless. The government should have made arrangements to rehabilitate them before taking this action.
Meanwhile, the authorities claimed that this land belonged to the HSVP.
In 2013, the HSVP had conducted a survey and identified 236 families for rehabilitation. Of them, 226 were found eligible and the HSVP got 264 flats in Sector14 (II), adjoining Mughal Canal constructed after spending Rs 14.85 crore in 2016 under the Ashiana scheme, but the residents had refused to shift there due to less space.
Later, the HSVP had provided 50-50 sq yards plots to around 226 families in Secto16. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had laid the foundation stone of this project on September 23, 2018. As per the authorities, 28 families got their houses constructed there and shifted there. The construction of 40 more houses is going on there. It seemed that the remaining families were not interested in constructing their houses there, said an official.
Deepak Ghanghas, Estate Officer, HSVP, said they demolished the structures whose residents had shifted to Sector16. They had already served notices on them. “The land belongs to the HSVP and these people had encroached upon it several years ago. We have given time to the remaining people to vacate the site. Some of them assured us that they would vacate at the earliest,” said the EO.
