New Delhi: Congress member Ajay Maken has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging its order of demolishing encroachments alongside the railway tracks.
The bench led by Justice Arun Mishra had ordered the demolition of Slum Dwellers alongside the railway tracks in a phased manner and had directed to remove the ones situated within safety zones in three months.
Railways had informed the court that due to political reasons they were not able to remove them, in response to which the court ordered that there should be no stay on the removal, neither political nor otherwise. In case any interim order is passed for staying the action, it shall not be effective, read the order.
The decision had come in response to a batch of pleas pertaining to pollution in Delhi which Justice Mishra pronounced in his last working week.
As per Maken, the "Delhi High Court had ruled that slum dwellers have the "Right to the City" and can not be removed without prior rehabilitation. He said that BJP and AAP did not inform the top court about this and obtained the order of removal by misleading them.
As per the SC's order, the special task force for the removal of encroachments has already been constituted by railways in response to NGT's 2018 order but due to political interventions, they have not been able to remove the encroachments.
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