AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Friday came to the rescue of slum dwellers from Rakhial, who have been served eviction notices by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), by asking the civic body to provide alternative accommodation to those eligible under the rehabilitation policy.
On December 22, AMC issued eviction notices to 270 units located between Limda Chowk and Macchi Bazaar in Rakhial, for road widening work stipulated in the town planning scheme.
Against this eviction bid, the city president of AIMIM, Shamshad Pathan, filed a PIL seeking protection against eviction of these poor citizens without rehabilitation. His advocate, S H Iyer, claimed that people have been residing living in the area for more than 30 years and are entitled to benefit under the rehabilitation scheme.
The bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri said the court will protect the interests of inhabitants of 125 residential units and asked the AMC for a rehabilitation plan. The civic body said it would consider giving alternative accommodation on seeing their eligibility. The court ordered the AMC not to begin an eviction drive at present and asked the residents to file an affidavit by February 2 in court that they will give up possession of their houses once the AMC gives them alternative accommodation and shifts them to the new place.
The court made it clear that the residents will make a representation to the AMC for alternative arrangement in 10 days and in the next three weeks, the corporation should take a decision on granting alternative accommodation after scrutinizing their documents to see if they are entitled to benefits of the rehabilitation scheme.
