No coercive action to remove slums along tracks in Delhi

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 24

The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that no coercive action would be taken to remove around 48,000 slum dwellings along the railway tracks in Delhi as deliberations were being held on the issue.

“The deliberations are going on. We are not taking any coercive steps,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. Taking note of Mehta’s submission, the Bench adjourned the matter for four weeks.

The court is seized of several applications, including the one by Delhi Congress leader Ajay Maken, seeking rehabilitation of the affected slum dwellers before they were dislodged. The top court had on August 31 ordered the removal of around 48,000 jhuggis along the railway tracks in Delhi in a phased manner in three months and said there shall not be any kind of political interference in implementation of its order.

Restraining courts from granting any kind of stay with respect to removal of these encroachments, the top court had said 70 per cent of the requisite amount shall be borne by the Railways and 30 per cent by the state government, and the manpower be provided by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Railways and agencies free of cost.