Uttarakhand: State government should pay attention to human aspect before demolition – Rajiv Maharshi

Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Media Coordinator and senior Congress leader Rajiv Maharshi has demanded immediate arrangements for rehabilitation of the people who are being rendered homeless in the scorching heat due to the demolition of the riverside settlements carried out on the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Dehradun. He said that the demolition is being carried out at a time when fire is pouring from the sky, people are suffering, in such a situation, rendering the people living on the riverside homeless is not only inhumane but also a failure of the state government.

Maharshi said that there was a provision for rehabilitation of the people living there after evacuating the slums on the riverside in the JNURM scheme, but from the attitude of the government it seems that this provision has been kept aside.

Maharshi expressed concern that no check has been put on the people selling leased land on the riverside, due to which the situation has worsened and people are being rendered homeless in the scorching heat. If the system had kept an eye on the fact that the leased land was not sold, then this situation would not have arisen today.

The Congress leader said that the people who built their houses on the leased land on the river bank had somehow arranged for a roof over their head by selling everything they had, but today in the deadly heat they have been brought on the road under the open sky, this is a very sad incident from the human point of view. Maharshi said that the Congress party does not support encroachment at any level but the people who have been cheated, have sympathy with those victims on the basis of humanity. He questioned that when these slums were taking shape, why was the government machinery sleeping? Why were those areas being covered under government schemes? From this point of view, the system is completely guilty and along with it those people who showed them the dream of their own house and sold the leased land on stamp paper.

Rajiv Maharshi said that it is the responsibility of the state government that strict action should be taken against those who sell the river bank land on a hundred rupee stamp paper and who have committed the sin of deceiving the helpless poor and bringing them on the road today.

Maharshi said that the human aspect is that the homeless people should be rehabilitated immediately and they should be provided housing facilities on easy installments so that their children, old and sick people and men and women can get relief. This is also the duty of a welfare state. This expectation is natural especially from those who gave the concept of Ram Rajya.