Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

537 houses built on railway property demolished in Hubli

Staff Correspondent

The operation was carried out for five hours under police protection

LOST LAND RECOVERED: Bulldozers demolishing unauthorised houses on railway land at Gandhiwada in Hubli on Saturday.

HUBLI: Five hundred and thirty seven illegal houses built on railway property at Gandhiwada here were razed to the ground here on Saturday.

The demolition, which was carried out with police protection, began around 8.30 a.m. and lasted five hours. The railway authorities were at the location at 7 a.m. They waited for the inmates to take out their belongings.

Along with the Government Railway Police, there were police personnel from the Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissionerate, headed by senior police officials, to tackle any law and order problem.

The demolition was smooth with the residents not offering any resistance. Some of the residents were in tears.

S.S. Joshi, Additional Divisional Railway Manager of Hubli Division of South Western Railway, said the occupants were issued notices in July.

It was in 2004 that the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board (KSCB) built separate houses for these occupants and allotted the same to them. It had built 392 houses.

After the allotment of houses from the board, the railway authorities issued notices to the occupants of illegal houses to vacate in 2005. Apart from seeking time for vacating the houses, some occupants opposed the move stating that they had not encroached any land and wanted a joint survey to be conducted to demarcate the railway property.

Following the protest, the Deputy Commissioner had directed the Revenue Department officials to conduct a joint survey with railway officials and officials of the board. The survey was conducted and the boundaries of railway property were demarcated.

Mr. Joshi said after the exercise was completed, notices were issued in July to the occupants of 537 illegal houses built on three acres of railway land. He said 15 days was given to them to file objections. "Keeping in mind the monsoon and the Ganesh festival, we had put off the demolition, he said.

Mr. Joshi said some of the occupants approached him on Friday seeking time to remove their belongings. "Already plenty of time had been given to them for the purpose. We decided to go ahead with the demolition," he said.

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