Supreme Court seeks Haryana reply on ‘woeful’ condition of Khori evacuees

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 27

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday asked the Haryana Government to respond to a report that said Khori village dwellers removed from the Aravalli forest area and now sheltered at Radha Swamy Satsang Centre, Faridabad, were facing “woefully inadequate” living conditions.

A Bench, led by Justice AM Khanwilkar, sought the state government’s response after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing some of the displaced residents of the village, said the statements made by the state regarding rehabilitation were incorrect.

“We have done an exhaustive report. We have been to the area, we have interviewed people and we have found a shocking state of affairs. We have put it on record here,” Gonsalves submitted.

The counsel for the Faridabad Municipal Corporation said the rehabilitation policy had since been finalised and it would be placed on record and a copy would also be shared with the petitioners. He said the policy had been finalised after considering the suggestions given by their counsel.

Asking the state and the corporation to file their responses on the application, the Bench posted it for hearing next month.

The corporation’s counsel told the Bench that they had already demolished around 10 farmhouses and other unauthorised structures on the forest land in the area.

The top court, had on June 7, ordered the Haryana Government and the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to remove “all encroachments”, consisting of around 10,000 residential constructions, in the Aravalli forest area near the village, saying “land grabbers cannot take refuge in rule of law and talk of fairness”.

Parikh referred to a report filed earlier by the Forest Department of Haryana before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and said a total of 123 properties were located on forest land.

“There are two ways of doing it. We start investigating on all factual matters right now or allow them (authorities) to complete the exercise, give compliance certificate and only thereafter go into the aspect which you are raising,” the bench said, adding, ‘’ They are prioritising the action”.

The Bench said it would look into all the aspects after the compliance report was filed.