Women from the affected households remonstrate before police personnel and district administration officials during the eviction exercise carried out at Police colony, Dimapur on May 21. The households allege that the action of the district administration was arbitrary and illegal as the case pertaining to the eviction exercise is pending in court. The women were however taken away from the place and the eviction was carried out.
District admin tears down “illegal structures” at Police colony; residents allege “arbitrary action”
DIMAPUR, MAY 21 (MExN): The Dimapur district administration tore down a number of structures at Police colony while evicting six households on May 21. The eviction was carried out amidst allegations that the district administration carried out the eviction drive, while the matter was pending in court.
According to Dimapur Deputy Commissioner, Hushili Sema, who was on site, the households evicted were employees of the Fire and Emergency services department, while contending that all procedures were followed as laid down in the Nagaland Eviction of Persons in Unauthorised Occupation of Public Land Act, 1971. The legal counsels, speaking on behalf of the affected households, contend on the other hand that the action of the district administration was “arbitrary, illegal and high-handed.”
Stating that the evicted households had obtained land deeds without the consent of the proper authority, the DC said that they had erected structures on government land alongside the living quarters they were allotted as government employees.
“As a government employee you are allotted quarters to stay, not to take over it,” stated the district Revenue Officer supplementing the DC.
Initially, there were nine families, who were said to have erected structures adjacent to the quarters they were allotted. The department of Fire and Emergency Services was said to have intervened asking the tenants to remove the structures. Following which three households relented but six households took the matter to court on grounds that they had obtained land deeds legally.
However, the district administration stated that their petitions were turned down by the court making way for the eviction today. Subsequently, eviction notice was issued on April 29 ordering the households to vacate the encroached land within 15 days.
On the lands deeds, the Revenue Officer said that the documents were obtained without the approval of the Fire and Emergency Services and at the same time, the ‘Dag number’ on the deeds do not match with that of the ‘Dag number’ of the area in which the contested plots of land falls. The land deeds were obtained during the period 1995-2009. Further, the district administration stated that there is a standing government order in effect since 1992, totally banning issuing of land deeds to private individuals on government land.
It is however to be noted that large tracts of government land have fallen into private holdings, particularly in Dimapur, notwithstanding the government’s blanket ban on issuing of land deeds on government land. The government, to date, has not been able to take corrective measures in this regard to reclaim the encroached lands.
The legal counsels representing the affected households argued that the district administration arbitrarily carried out the eviction drive despite the matter pending in court. According to the counsels, the district administration, in an order dated August 1, 2012 had notified the affected families on the matter to which the affected households/tenants replied in written explaining the reasons. But the DC, in another order dated March 8, 2013 cancelled the land deeds held by the aggrieved households.
Aggrieved by the two orders, five of the households filed a writ petition at the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court. The High Court after examining the case passed on the case to the lower court via an order dating to March 23, 2013. Accordingly, “declaratory suits” were filed before the civil court “along with petition praying for injunctions,” the civil court on April 12, 2013; the civil court fixing the date of hearing on May 14, the legal counsels said. However, during the intervening period, the DC Dimapur issued eviction order dated April 29, 2013 directing the households to vacate, it was added. Further, the eviction was carried out despite the fact that a hearing was scheduled in court on May 21, the date of the eviction exercise.
Furthermore, one of the six households had also separately filed a writ petition challenging the eviction notice at the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court, it was added. The court subsequently stayed the eviction notice.
The stand of the affected families is that the forceful eviction carried out by the district administration was “highly arbitrary, illegal and high handed,” the counsels said.
“The order of the eviction drive was also never circulated to the affected families” officially, the counsels further contended, adding that it was only in the morning of the date of the eviction exercise that the households were let known.
