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The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday stayed demolition in Akbar Nagar here till March 31, allowing residents to shift their belongings during this period. Thereafter, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) will be free to demolish houses in the slum.
The high court also directed the development authority to bring down the registration fee for PM Awas to ₹1000 from ₹5000.
If extremely poor natives of Akbar Nagar are still not able to arrange accommodation for themselves, then they are free to approach the chief minister for relief, the court added.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Om Prakash Shukla on Wednesday delivered the judgment in open court.
“All residents of Akbar Nagar 1 and 2 shall vacate the disputed premises on or before the midnight of March 31 and thereafter, it shall be open for the respondent-authorities to clear the said area,” the court said.
The high court had earlier reserved the order after completing the hearing on February 26.
Around 74 BPL card holders of Akbar Nagar had filed a writ petition in the high court, seeking a stay on the development authority’s demolition drive in Akbar Nagar. The drive was being carried out as the slum has been illegally constructed on government land. There are around 1400 houses in the slum.
“We find some force in petitioners. It is, therefore, provided that any person being rehabilitated from Akbar Nagar slums applying for EWS accommodation, shall be provided such an accommodation,” the court said.
“Further, we find that these persons applying for the EWS flats may face some financial constraints also. We, therefore, provide that EWS flats shall be provided on initial registration deposit of ₹1000 instead of ₹5000,” the court added.
Further, in case those applying for the EWS accommodation, for some unavoidable circumstances, are unable to pay their instalments within 10 years, respondent authorities (LDA) shall extend the period by a maximum of five years.
“In case any EWS allottee still faces difficulty even to pay the said installments, it will be open for such a person to move an appropriate application before the chief minister of the state, who shall consider and grant appropriate relief to such deserving bona fide person from the chief minister’s beneficiary fund or from any other appropriate funds or schemes as applicable for the benefit of the poor from time to time,” the court said.
The court also extended the benefit of rehabilitation scheme to other residents of Akbar Nagar who have not approached the court.
The applications under the rehabilitation scheme will be filed by the petitioners and other similarly situated persons within a period of two weeks from today (March 6) and, simultaneously, the LDA will start allotting flats for rehabilitation and the entire process of shifting will be completed by March 31.
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