Take action against officials facilitating illegal constructions in Jammu, Srinagar: LA Panel

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 27: Observing that glaring Master Plan violations in Jammu and Srinagar cities were committed generally in connivance with the officials of the enforcement squads, the Committee on Estimates of Legislative Assembly has cautioned the Government against allowing the officials responsible for the same going scot-free and directed that action in accordance with the law must be taken against all such officials.
“The violations in respect of the construction building permission are committed by the concerned generally in connivance with the officials of the enforcement squads of the Jammu Municipal Corporation, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Srinagar Development Authority and Jammu Development Authority”, the Committee said in its 44th report tabled in the State Legislature recently, adding “the violations are being committed continuously by ignoring the prescribed building plans/norms”.
“In response to certain queries raised by the members of the Committee, the Housing and Urban Development Department admitted the cases of Master Plan violations in twin capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu and disclosed that there was nexus between the land mafia, police and revenue officers resulting in illegal constructions, establishment of unauthorized colonies and encroachments upon the State land in connivance with the officers/officials of the concerned departments”, the report said.
According to the report, Srinagar Development Authority has identified three unauthorized colonies and Jammu Development Authority and Housing Board have identified 23 unauthorized colonies in Jammu. “Though it was decided on July 30, 2013 that the identification of left over unauthorized colonies would be conducted by the Development Authorities and Municipal Corporations of twin cities and the list of such colonies would be prepared in consultation with the MLA of the concerned constituency yet no substantial progress has been made in this regard”, the report added.
As there was no response from the Housing and Urban Development Department on the query regarding list of officers/officials, who were directly/indirectly responsible for facilitating the glaring violations of the Jammu/Srinagar Master Plans, the Committee has strongly recommended the department to identify and take action in accordance with the law against the officials responsible for facilitating the glaring violations of the Master Plans and to ensure that such violations don’t take place in future.
The Committee has also directed the department to keep close vigil on the illegal constructions besides identifying the State land encroachment cases. “Director General of Police should advise the police personnel to cooperate with the enforcement wings of the Municipal Corporations and Development Authorities during the anti-encrochment/demolition drives in order to retrieve the State land”, the panel said.
The concerned departments have further been directed to take immediate steps for demarcation of the State land in the urban areas and fencing the same to avoid encroachment besides strict action must be initiated against the trespassers.
The Committee on Estimates of the Legislative Assembly has also expressed serious concern over the present scenario of the twin capital cities with the observation that both the cities were facing lot of hardships for want of requisite facilities mainly because of the increased population and migration of people from rural areas.
“Such a trend has not only added to the internal and external problems but also cast an adverse impact on the city and its adjacent habitations in respect of the basic services like water, transportation, health, power and education”, the Committee said, adding “lack of coordination among various departments causes huge loss to the State exchequer and inconvenience to the people as the few departments—PHE, Housing and Urban Development, Telecommunic-ation and NBCC generally dug roads for laying down water/sewerage pipes/wires under the ground often shift their responsibility to each other for repairing the so-damaged roads”.
The Committee has further observed that parking places in Jammu and Srinagar cities were turning from bad to worse mainly due to lack of parking lots particularly in the densely populated markets because the people were forced to park their vehicles on the internal roads which often leads to complete chaos.
‘The Housing and Urban Development Department should build multi-level parking lots in Jammu and Srinagar cities to get rid of the traffic mess on roads”, the report of House Panel said.

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