India / UN urges India to halt eviction of 1 lakh people from Haryana village, India responds

New Delhi: Experts from the United Nations on Friday urged Indian authorities to halt evictions of around 1 lakh people from Khori village in Haryana during the monsoon season. They appealed to India to "urgently review its plans for razing" Khori village and "consider regularising the settlement" in order to ensure no citizen is left homeless.

Earlier on June 7, the Supreme Court of India had directed the Municial Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) to "remove encroachments on the subject forest land [in Khori village] without any exception". The civic body was given six weeks till July 19 to complete the task in order to "reclaim Aravalli forest land". According to the court, Khori's land is under forest land, so any construction on it is illegal.

The final phase of the civic body's demolition drive to remove the illegal structures in the area had begun on Wednesday following the Supreme Court's order, news agency PTI had reported.

INDIA'S RESPONSE

In response to a press release by a group of UN Special Rapporteurs on the Khori village issue, the Permanent Mission of India to the Office of the United Nations issued a statement. The statement said, "It is unfortunate that the Special Rapporteurs have chosen to issue a press release just two days after sending a joint communication to this Mission and not waiting for a response."

The Permanent Mission also said that it was unfortunate that the Special Rapporteurs had made "disrespectful remarks" against India's Supreme Court. "It is a worrying trend and an abuse of [their] position... which seriously damages [their] credibility," it stated.

The Permanent Mission's statement asked the UN Special Rapporteurs to "undertake genuine efforts to understand the importance of upholding the 'rule of law' in any democratic society... and desist from undermining the same."

Finally, the statement said that India is aware of its human rights obligations and "has undertaken all requisite steps towards full implementation" of the same.

PROTESTS AGAINST DEMOLITIONS IN KHORI

Several people in Khori village protested this week against the massive demolition action. Amid the chaos, a local, who opposed the demolition of his house, was brutally thrashed allegedly by a policeman in civil clothes. A video of this incident was circulated on social media.

The victim was also detained by police after the incident. The incident happened when authorities had reached the Khori village to clear encroachments on forest land.

Several teams had been deputed by the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to remove all the encroachments which over the years came up on the forest land spread over 172 acres. There are around 10,000 residential structures in the Aravalli forest area near the Khori village which the Supreme Court has ordered to remove.