The Supreme Court has directed the removal of 48,000 jhuggis (shanties) situated along the railway tracks in Delhi. The SC also said the encroachments which are there in the safety zones should be removed within a period of three months without political or any other interferences.
The court has also stopped any court for passing an order of stay against such removals. “No Court shall grant any stay with respect to removal of the encroachments in the area in question. In case any interim order is granted with respect to encroachments, which have been made along with railway tracks, that shall not be effective,” the SC said. The apex court has also directed all stakeholders to draw up a comprehensive plan for the removal of the slum dwellings for it to be executed in a phased manner.
“The picture painted in the report of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) as well as in the reply filed by the Railways indicates that nothing has been done so far and waste is being piled up and at the same time, there is human habitation which has come in the same area unauthorisedly, which are required to be taken care of. Let the action taken be reported to this court within a period of one month,” the court said.
The SC further added, “The manpower be provided by the SDMC, Railways and agencies available with the government, free of cost, and they will not charge it from each other. SDMC, Railways and other agencies to ensure that their contractors do not put the waste/ garbage on the sides of the railway tracks.”
The apex court also directed the execution of a plan with respect to the removal of plastic bags, garbage etc. within a period of three months and a meeting of all stakeholders including Railways, Delhi government and concerned municipal corporations as well as the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Trust (DUISB) next week so that work can start forth with.
The SC in its order also said that SDMC has undertaken the responsibility to remove all the waste/garbage at the specified places where the Railways put the garbage and this will not be a temporary measure, but the Railways shall also prepare a long-term scheme that no such piling of the wastes takes place along with the sides of the railways tracks.
The Railways had submitted that there are predominant presence of shanties in Delhi along with 140 km route length of track in the region of National Capital Territory of Delhi where the railway tracks take off in different directions and also include a ring connecting the take off of all these routes. Out of this, about 70km route length of track is affected by large ‘jhuggie, jhopri’ clusters, existing in close vicinity of the tracks. These clusters sum up to a total of about 48,000 jhuggies in the region adjacent to railway tracks. The SC, which was hearing an application filed in the MC Mehta case relating to Delhi pollution matters, took this step, after the Indian Railways informed the court that despite a Special Task Force constituted to remove encroachments, political interference was coming in the way of getting the jhuggis removed.