The Haldwani Crisis

The Haldwani incident has brought to the fore issues like encroachment and prolonged government inaction. Backed by a High Court order, the Uttarakhand government was gearing up to evict about 50,000 people, mostly from the minority Muslim community, who had encroached upon government land, most of it reportedly belonging to the Railways. The problem however, was that these people had been living there for four to five decades. Therefore, Supreme Court intervention halted any coercive government action aimed at evicting the encroachers. This is where both the government and the legal system have failed to meet the expectations of the people. To start with, the state government and the Railways did not take preventive steps to secure the land nor did they move with alacrity when it comes to seeking legal remedy. With time, not only did the area of encroachment keep growing in size, but many of the dwellings assumed a permanent character. It is only natural that when the government decided to move against the encroachment, there was resistance and also widespread outrage because of the attendant humanitarian crisis. The issue also took on a communal angle with Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and several others, jumping into the fray. The demonstrators blocked roads and refused to be evicted at any cost, in what many saw as a repeat of the long-drawn Shaheen Bagh protest. Some saw a worrying sign in this—the Shaheen Bagh template paralysing administration and government action in every such situation. However, the humanitarian aspect of this crisis cannot be lost upon us. Therefore, the apex court bench of Justice S K. Kaul and Justice Oka was right in its observation that 50,000 people could not be displaced overnight without an alternative solution. This problem is not unique to Haldwani alone. Across India, mainly in urban metropolises and large towns, we find government land encroached upon. The Department of Railways has been among the biggest victims of encroachment and has also perhaps been the slowest to react. Railway land in practically every state of the country has been encroached upon with impunity. Everywhere, permanent dwellings make it virtually impossible for the government to act at this stage against the encroachers. With the Court putting a halt to the process of eviction in Haldwani while asking the locals not to undertake any further construction, the crisis has been averted for now. But the broader question remains—what about such encroachments elsewhere? What if this template of encroachment and refusing to budge is carried out in multiple places? The government should look at the wider issue of housing and rehabilitation to avoid these problems from blowing up into major crises. Hopefully, Haldwani holds a lesson for us all, especially those in authority.