‘Bulldozers not enough to tackle encroachment’

Bombay HC stays removal of unauthorized structures on Railway land in Mumbai

First India Bureau

Mumbai: Calling for encroachment to be addressed in a more considered fashion than by just deploying bulldozers, the Bombay High Court has asked the Western Railway, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation if they had any policies on the rehabilitation of encroachers.

The court said that simply labelling persons as encroachers and displacing them could not be termed a viable solution to the issue.

A division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale on February 08 heard a petition filed by Mumbaibased Ekta Welfare Society, challenging the eviction and demolition notices issued to its residents by railway authorities as they were encroaching on its property.

As per the Western Railway, 101 unauthorized structures have already been demolished till February 07.

The high court said the demolition report submitted by the Western Railway does not indicate whether any survey was done of the 101 structures before demolition, which was against the directions given by the Supreme Court in December 2021.

The bench said no further demolition is to be carried out in contravention of the SC order anywhere on Western Railway lands in Mum-

4 railway staff killed by rogue tower wagon in Nashik

First India Bureau bai, and posted the matter for further hearing on March 01.

Nashik: Four railway trackmen—identified as Santosh Bhaurao Kedare (38), Dinesh Sahadu Darade (35), Krishna Atmaram Ahire (40) and Santosh Sukhdev Shirsath (38) —were killed after a tower wagon, which is used for maintenance of overhead equipment in electrified sections, hit them in Nashik district on Monday, officials said.

Throughout, we bear in mind that merely labelling these persons as ‘encroachers’ is not going to answer the problem. This is a serious problem in the city and it is a problem of human displacement. Sometimes, the scale of the displacement is beyond imagination. It has to be addressed in a more considered fashion than by merely deploying bulldozers on the site.

As per the SC order, before commencing the process of eviction and removal of structures, the authorities concerned should record the identity of the occupants of the structure for consideration of rehabilitation.

The apex court had said if the local govern-

Mumbai airport’s passenger movement up 150% y-o-y

Mumbai (ANI): Mumbai’s Chhatrapati

Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), the second busiest airport in India, recorded nearly 4.5 million passenger movements in January 2023, an increase of 149% on a yearly basis.

“CSMIA, in January 2023, has played host to approximately 4.5 million passengers across 27,331 flights, which is 149% higher than the number in January 2022 movement,” an official release said on Monday.

Of the total, it witnessed about 1.2 million international passengers, and around 3.2 million domestic passengers.

This rise in travellers, the release said, was driven by positive sentiments among air travellers and a strong surge due to the festive holiday season.