Calcutta High Court on Friday came down heavily on the railway ministry and Railway Board for delaying the process of evicting settlers on tracts of railway land along Rabindra Sarobar, and on the question of providing alternative land to the squatters.

?We are giving the railways a last opportunity. It should come out with a concrete proposal after a fortnight on the rehabilitation of squatters. All squatters will have to be removed,? said an angry division bench, comprising Chief Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice A.K. Ganguly.

The court order added: ?The railways allowed the squatters to occupy their land but the squatters will have to be removed at the cost of the state government. The railways will not do anything for rehabilitating them.

?The railway minister had said land would be made available for rehabilitation. But the Railway Board had made a blunt statement that it had neither money nor land to give the squatters,? the court said, pointing to the contradiction between the two statements.

The judges said they had passed orders on the basis of the statement by railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and were hoping that the Supreme Court order would be carried out after the allotment of alternative land.

?The railways should take some positive steps. On account of the statement by the railway minister, we expected rehabilitation. The squatters are progressively growing in number. The railways will have to evict them,? the court order added.

At one point of time, the court wanted to summon Laloo Prasad Yadav to share his views on the matter. But railway counsel R.N. Das intervened and sought two more weeks? time from the court.

The state government has taken a very clear role in the matter. Appearing for the state, advocate-general Balai Roy categorically said his client was ready to bear the other costs if the Centre or the railways provided land for the squatters.

The advocate-general on Friday submitted a report by chief secretary Ashok Gupta before the court.

In it, Gupta stated his government?s stand in the matter, vis-a-vis the disparate views of the railway ministry and the Railway Board.