Kasauli Cantt Board serves eviction notices on villagers

Decades after they constructed their houses, several residents of Chattiyan village, which falls on the periphery of Kasauli, have been served show-cause notices by the Cantonment Board, Kasauli, asking them to vacate their premises as parts of their houses fall on defence land.

The eviction notices were issued on November 28. The villagers have been termed “unauthorised occupiers of public premises” and will be evicted from the defence land.

The Cantonment Board has based its observations on the second phase of a peripheral survey carried out by it along with representatives of the Defence Estate Office, Ambala.

The encroachment has been duly mapped in each case and each villager has been asked to explain his or her position by personally appearing before the board authorities.

This has left the villagers in distress. Some of them contend that the mode of “drawing a straight line between Cantonment Board pillars 12 and 13”, showing separation of defence and panchayat land, is incorrect and does not depict the factual position on the ground.

They claim that their land is also reflected in the digital revenue record of the state government on the HIMBHUMI portal and their houses lie in the jurisdiction of the panchayat land concerned.

The villagers say they are enrolled as voters for the Assembly, Lok Sabha and panchayat elections, but not as voters of the Cantonment Board.

They have furnished the revenue record of the sale and purchase of the land to buttress their claim that they had constructed their houses on the village land and not on the Cantonment Board land.

“Land ranging from 2,000 sq ft to 3,500 sq ft has been claimed by the Cantonment Board in some cases, leaving the residents high and dry. We are now running from pillar to post to explain to the defence authorities that we have not encroached upon any defence land,” rued a villager, who has been served a notice.

“There is a dispute between the defence authorities and the Revenue Department since 2019 over the demarcation of land. The five land owners who have been served eviction notices have been directed to present their stand before the Cantonment Board authorities so that the position can be clarified on the ground,” said a board official.

While measuring land, defence officials had carried out a survey during which they realised that a part of their peripheral area had been encroached upon by villagers of Chattiyan, who had now been served show-cause notices, the officer added.