SC rejects Uttarakhand plea on encroachment deadline

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the state government’s petition seeking an extension of the deadline set by the Uttarakhand high court for removal of encroachments.

“We approached the apex court requesting it to extend the deadline set by the high court for removal of encroachments,” minister and government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said.

“We were, however, directed to approach the high court which had directed the state government to have encroachments removed within a given time.”

On Monday, the state government filed a petition in the top court requesting that the deadline for removal of encroachments be extended in view of officials being “busy in relief works due to heavy rains and inconveniences being faced by the common citizens”.

The petition was filed after BJP MLA from Rajpur (Dehradun) Khajan Das faced an angry mob when he visited an area of his constituency where the anti-encroachment drive was on.

Incidentally, there is massive anger among the people against the anti-encroachment drive being carried out by the state government in compliance with the high court order.

Kaushik said he had no offhand information about the exact date by which the encroachments are to be removed.