Hundreds of families, encroaching for years on central government property, especially those belonging to railways in urban or semi-urban hubs, are applying for long-term settlement rights as the state government started to receive applications for pattas in the current edition of Duare Sarkar camps that began in November.

Officials said that although the state government had the intention to give pattas to landless families, the demand for land rights from encroachers in urban areas had posed a challenge.

“The people are encroachers on railways land. However, only the authority which owns the land can settle the issues,” said a bureaucrat.

“We can give pattas to those encroaching on a stretch of state government. We can give pattas even if the land is in urban areas. However, It has become a challenge for us as hundreds of people living on railway land belonging to the Centre are applying for pattas,” the senior state government official added.

This problem started surfacing in the fifth edition of the Duare Sarkar camps, when the state government started providing pattas, especially in rural areas, to help people have better livelihood opportunities through agriculture.

Around 80 families staying for years on a stretch of railway land in Rampurhat town applied for pattas at a Duare Sarkar camp after the railways served an evacuation notice on them in September.

The families submitted an application to the state government demanding pattas or proper rehabilitation, raising the eyebrows of state government officials.

“The railways served us eviction notices twice. They threatened to bulldoze our huts if we don’t vacate the land on which we have been living for years. Therefore, we applied for patta at a Duare Sarkar camp,” said Seema Ankur, a 65-year-old woman from Rampurhat living for the past 10 years on a stretch of railway land.

Amid this quandary, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on November 23 urged the people to protest against the central government authorities if they tried to evacuate people without compensation or rehabilitation. Mamata made the comment at a government programme to distribute pattas to nearly 4,000 landless families from Netaji Indoor Stadium in Calcutta.

“I have heard in the Assembly that people are being evacuated forcibly to set up railway bridges or widening of national highways. I will not allow anyone to bulldoze (colonies) and evacuate families living for years without proper compensation and rehabilitation,” Mamata had said on November 23 while asking her officials to complete the process to give pattas to residents of 300 refugee colonies.

“If people living on land belonging to railways or airports without rehabilitation, you (the residents) stage protests and my government will be on your side,” she added.

Mamata’s comment was corroborated by district officials who are finding it a huge challenge to deal with applications for pattas for land owned by the Centre.

A senior railways official said they were trying to recover encroached land. Notices have been served to thousands of encroachers across Bengal on multiple occasions. The railways have no policy to rehabilitate encroachers facing evacuation, he added.

“We started an extensive evacuation drive across the country and it will continue. We have already evacuated encroachers at several places in Bengal,” said Ekalabaya Chakraborty, the chief public relations officer of Eastern Railways.

At the same time, some Trinamul leaders accused Opposition parties of instigating encroachers of central land to apply for pattas at Duare Sarkar camps.

Shahajada Hossain Kinu, the Rampurhat town president of Congress, said there was nothing wrong if Opposition parties helped the poor get their rights.

“I helped 80 families in applying for patta at a Duare Sarkar camp. The officials accepted our applications but there is no response so far. What’s wrong if we help people get government benefits?” Kinu said