The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court has put an interim stay on the demolition of Akbarnagar I and II situated on the banks of Kukrail River. The court has asked the state government and LDA to first give four weeks’ time to the people living there to apply for rehabilitation. The court has fixed January 22 for the next hearing of the case.
If the people who have adopted the rehabilitation plan give up their possession, LDA can take possession of their premises. However, the court also said that the petitioners have not been successful in proving their ownership. This order was passed by a single bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia while simultaneously hearing a total of 26 petitions of 46 persons, including Syed Hamidul Bari.
In its order, the court said relatively poor people are living there and it cannot be understood why there is such a hurry in taking demolition action against them. That too without actually implementing the rehabilitation plan in this cold season. The main argument given by the petitioners was that the petitioners were in possession of that place for 40-50 years and at that time the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973 was not even implemented, hence no action was taken to evict the petitioners under the law. The government and LDA can also file their reply on the petition.
The Muslim-concentration Akbarnagar colony in Lucknow is in the news. Police forces were stationed at various points in the settlement, and bulldozers were lined up at the Kukrail end of Ayodhya Road, which passes through the area. On December 21st, these bulldozers flattened some shops in the main market of Akbarnagar. Prior to this, 58 houses in the nearby Bhikhampur colony were also reduced to rubble. The resident members then approached the High Court, resulting in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad Court issuing a stay on the demolition process until January 22, 2024.
The Uttar Pradesh government is trying to complete the construction of the riverfront along Kukrail, a tributary of the Gomati River that runs through the city very fast. Around 1200 houses and 102 shops in Akbarnagar have been marked for demolition as they are alleged to be illegal structures obstructing the riverfront development.
As per reports, notices were issued to around 1200 house owners, and 102 shop owners by LDA and the Municipal Corporation. Akbarpur has over 2000 houses, accommodating more than 3000 families. Approximately 25,000 people will be directly affected by the government’s actions, losing their homes and livelihoods.
The LDA had allotted this land to the Homeless Committee Secretary Bachchu Lal 40 years ago. The settlement, established by the Homeless Committee in 1973, was named Akbarpur after Akbar Ali Khan, the Governor of UP from November 4, 1972, to October 24, 1974. Some people settled around Kukrail were allotted Nazul (government) land by LDA in 1983.
“There is general direction of the Supreme Court that before displacement the evacuees should be rehabilitated but it has not been done in the present case. The families are being thrown out for developing the riverfront at the cost of human beings. Demolition during severe cold is inhuman and atrocious. The High Court has rightly stayed the Demolition,” said Lucknow-based retired Inspector General of Police (IGP) turned-human rights defender S.R. Darapuri.
“According to the authority, it has allotted 72 houses at Basant Kunj on Hardoi Road under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to families displaced from Bikhampur; 18 other families have been allotted houses under the DUDA’s Asra Housing scheme.
LDA vice-chairman Indramani Tripathi added 31 families of Akbarpur had been allotted houses under the PM Awas Yojana at Basant Kunj. Also, 58 families have so far been provided houses under the DUDA housing scheme, he added. The LDA had issued demolition orders for houses built in Akbarpur. Around 1,200 people resided there. It has already demolished illegal houses in Bikhampur. According to LDA additional secretary Gyanendra Varma, “Those willing to relocate would have an option to pay installments for the houses over 10 years,”a report published by Hindustan Times claimed.
The current estimate of Akbarpurpopulation in 2023 is 152,000. The last census was conducted in 2011 and the scheduled census for Akbarpur city in 2021 was postponed due to Covid. As per provisional reports of Census India, the population of Akbarpur in 2011 is 111,447. Total number of slums in Akbarpur city numbers 7,927 in which population of 50,067 resides. This is around 44.92 percent of total population of Akbarpur city.
The population of non-Muslims in Akbarpur city is 75.29 percent. Muslims are approximately 23.99 percent, followed by Christians 0.21 percent, Jains 0.01 percent,Sikhs 0.10, Buddhists 0.05 percent.
Bharat Bhusan, in his article, “Political significance of Uttar Pradesh’s bulldozer demolitions,” published by Deccan Herald on 16 June 2022 has reasonably argued, “If building laws and planning permissions were indeed implemented uniformly, half the properties in Indian towns and cities would have to be demolished either partially or fully. A recent survey published in national newspapers, for example, found that 35 per cent of a sample of buildings surveyed in Gujarat- in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara were illegal. Not one of them has been demolished. There is no reason to believe that the situation is very different in cities and towns in other states.”
Demolition anywhere without following due process of law is against the spirit of the Constitution, law of the land and it goes against humanity and in our Indian constitution there is no place of Bulldozer Justice. We can see that other states have also practiced Bulldozer justice, which reminds us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.