BHOPAL : Heavy police force was deployed on Thursday morning to remove the encroachments from government land around the Barkhedi Railway crossing and Aishbagh area to make way for the laying of the third railway line between Habibganj and Bina stations. Tehsildar Bhuwan Gupta, along with administrative and BMC officials was present on the spot.
The administration was apprehensive that the residents might offer resistance to the drive. The slum dwellers of the area have been allotted alternative land in Kalapani on Kolar Road and were asked to shift there. The residents were protesting the order, claiming that the land allocated for their re-settlement was not safe. It was located in a forested area where wild animals abound.
Tehsildar Bhuvan Gupta informed that the 70 of the 190 shanties located within 10 metres of the tracks were razed. The people were persuaded to shift voluntarily. Vehicles were provided to them by BMC to cart their household goods to the new location.
The remaining shanties would be shifted in the second phase of the drive. (Chaos prevailed in the area when district Congress President PC Sharma reached the spot along with other party workers.
People started becoming restless and tried to create sensation by blocking the railway tracks by lying on them. The situation started to become tense but was soon controlled by the police. Sharma along with other district Congressmen reached the spot and raised slogans against the administration. They said that the drive should have been started earlier in view of the fact that the holy Ramadan month begins from June 17 and rains are round the corner. Making people homeless at this point in time was against the principles of natural justice, they argued.
Similar situation prevailed in the year 2012 when the people living in these areas pelted stones and tried to set ablaze the trains. In the incident the then collector Nikunj Shrivastava, SP and many other officials were injured.)
