The Hindu 19.01.2010
Govt., civic bodies directed to rehabilitate Kashmiri shopowners
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the New Delhi Municipal Council to identify a suitable place where Kashmiri migrants whose shops were demolished during an anti-encroachment drive at INA Market in South Delhi could be permitted to set up their shops.
Justice S. Muralidhar passed the direction on a bunch of petitions by six of these migrants submitting that their shops were demolished in 2007 without any prior notice and in violation of orders of the High Court.
Demolished
The MCD and the NDMC had allowed them to construct small stalls in the market and also provided power and water connections to them, the petitioner submitted.
They further alleged that their shops were demolished at 7 a.m. in the morning and all the goods kept in their shops were looted.
Justice Muralidhar in his order said it was plain to the Court that the demolition of the Kashmiri migrant’ shops was in the teeth of two orders of a Division Bench of the Court passed on September 23, 2002, and on January 15, 2003.
Meeting
The demolition had been carried out jointly by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the MCD, the Delhi Development Authority and the Central Public Works Department under the overall supervision of the Land and Development Officer.
The Court directed the Secretaries of the Union Ministries of Urban Development and of Home Affairs to convene a meeting of representatives of the Delhi Government, the MCD, the NDMC, the CPWD, the DDA and the L&DO to consider the demolition of the shops.
The Court said it was expected that the outcome of this meeting would be something positive for the migrants.
The matter will now come up for hearing in the court on February 24.