Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 24: Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) is creating hurdles in the construction of damaged houses in New Colony, a Government established colony in Batmaloo area of Srinagar.
Mukhtar Ahmad, a resident of the New Colony in Batmaloo area of Srinagar, said 330 houses were damaged in the devastating September floods. “Out of these 330 houses, 80 collapsed while 250 were declared unsafe by the Government as they suffered major damages”, he said.
The colony that has 450 houses was established by the Government for fire victims of Batmaloo after 1965 war. The locality was raised to rubble in the fire during war.
Ghulam Ahmad, another resident, said that he has applied for building permission of his damaged house but the SMC has sent it to other departments like Road and buildings Department for No Objection Certificate (NOC). “The R&B department says we have make constructions 30 feet from the centre of the road as per Ribbon Act. By these standards hardly 500 square feet will be left for the construction of our house”, he added.
A senior official in the R&B department, when contacted, said that they have received several applications of New Colony Batmaloo for building permissions forwarded by the SMC for NOC. “We can’t allow the construction of these houses as Ribbon Act says that constructions should be 30 feet away from the Centre of the road. These plots are 5 marla or 7 marla and if we apply Ribbon Act to it, then hardly a couple of marlas will be left for constructions”, he said.
The officer said that SMC should take decision of building permissions in New Colony Batmaloo on their own as it is a Government colony. “By sending these cases for NOCs, the SMC officials are creating un-necessary hurdles and are opening doors for corruption”, he added.
Mohammad Altaf whose house was also damaged in the floods is living with his relatives along with 8 member family. “My house was damaged in floods but I have not received any compensation so far. I have applied for the building permission and I finally got it. The SMC is creating hurdles and they make us to suffer. Ours is a Government colony and we want to construct same house on the same piece of land and still they are making the process cumbersome”, he added.
“Our colony was established by Government 50 years ago. The SMC is creating problems for us instead of making it easy for flood victims whose houses were damaged”, said Altaf.
Asha Begum of the New Colony whose house developed cracks is sinking slowly since September floods. Her son, Manzoor Ahmad, was the only bread winner for the eight member family. Manzoor had a shop in Batmaloo and it was damaged along with all the goods during the floods. The women of the family are now managing to run the family by spinning wool which hardly fetches much. The family has got a cheque worth Rs 12500 from government which they along with other people in the colony refused to accept.
The Commissioner of SMC, G N Qasba, told Excelsior that for Government colonies there is a set procedure for the building permissions. “These issues should not come up in case of Government colonies. I will look into it”, he added. He said that the SMC has given 1100 building permissions in Srinagar city. “We received 2, 912 applications for building permissions and we have rejected 436 cases and 70 cases have been sent for the NOC”, he added.
It may be mentioned here that 75, 000 houses were damaged in Srinagar in September floods out of which 5000 collapsed. Majority of the people are waiting for building permissions to re-construct houses.
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