Bhopal. Under the Bhopal-Ramganj Mandi third rail line project, houses built on the side of the railway track are being demolished. Railway has declared these houses as encroachment. In this episode, on Friday, an announcement was made by the Railways to demolish the houses built in Annu Nagar and Shriram Nagar, behind the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. After this announcement people themselves started demolishing their houses. First people took out their household goods safely and then started demolishing the houses by taking out bamboo, bali, tin sheds. About 55 families left their houses and became homeless on Friday.
Only 30 families were displaced
The families being evicted from the railway land are being displaced by the state government, but here the victim families allege that neither the railways nor the district administration takes care of them after making them homeless. Out of 55 families that have been uprooted, only 30 families have been displaced. The victim Kundan Singh told that he had been living here for the last 25 years, when the Railways had given him notice to remove the house, he had approached the Collector in this matter. The collector had assured that all these will be given plots on government land, but till date it has not been given.
500 slums were removed in January
Under the Bhopal-Ramganj Mandi Rail Project, the action to remove encroachment from railway land was started by the Railways in January 2023. Around 500 jhuggis were removed from Arif Nagar and Nawab Colony in January. In this case, social activist Rachna Dhingra says that the Railways is removing the houses of the poor in the name of development, but is not serious about the displacement of the affected families. Out of the 500 families that were rendered homeless in the past, only 150 families have been displaced, while the rest are living here and there.
