Can any project be conceived and then approved to be built followed by work on it allowed to be commenced only to see it abandoned midway ? If the observation in such a scenario would be termed as nothing short of a chaos and utter confusion as also a prejudice nursed by considerations extraneous to the cogent causes, one wonders what else could it be termed as. It seems, as if there has been a departure of semblance and regard for normal ways of governance in this State and anything of any sort, at times could be expected even if, that would look extremely unfortunate and thus untenable.
Why was the Jamboo Zoo project , at the outset, conceived involving a whooping amount of Rs. 121 crore, way back in 2016 to come up near IIT Complex at Jagti Nagrota if there would have been no convincing ground and associated reasons ? It is likely that a proper project report must have been prepared with expert and technical opinion, economic and technical feasibility clauses, cost estimates and fluctuations if any due to unavoidable circumstances, provision for clearance certificates from various departments and all other prerequisites . Only then, its foundation stone must have been laid by the then Forest Minister in Sept 2016. Why has its work been stopped since March 2018 under the plea that money amounts under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) could not be made available for the project. Where from the amount of Rs.13 crore spent on this project so far had been arranged except from the poor tax payers? How can this amount be allowed to get squandered and why should the public not demand the same to be recovered from the personal assets of those authorities who accorded sanction there for? If it had been arranged from the CAMPA funds , who authorised such non end use of these funds which are created as a result of proper legislation for specific purposes as enshrined in the Act itself?
It looks quite ludicrous that funds could be made available to the tune of Rs.13 crore but subsequent instalments of funds are stalled on the technical plea . Either the new technical objection about which wisdom dawned belatedly is wrong or the earlier decision was totally wrong , in fact right from the stage of conceiving of the project vis-a-vis financial support from the CAMPA funds. Who was going to clarify the issue mired in utter confusion and haze? Is this project deliberately made to suffer to the level of becoming a victim of sabotage because of being Jammu centric, is the feeling we have gathered from many quarters, though we may not wholly subscribe to such apprehensions. At the same time, such apprehensions and fears need to be allayed . At least, such type of approaches with questionable covenants should have never been allowed to sprout under Governor’s rule and the administration under him which contribute to creation of an air of apathy from the Government. Now, if under the cover of the revised guidelines received during the start of the year 2018 from the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment, work is sought to be stopped , we feel that the guidelines obviously must apply to projects subsequent to the receipt of such guidelines and not the earlier ones. Therefore, how can those projects be abandoned which were to receive the funds from the CAMPA institutional mechanism ?
Not to mince words, we would in short, like to clarify that the element of Dogra heritage is a part of the project that the Governor’s Administration needs to take note of seriously which warrants that not to speak of any idea of abandoning of the project, work should be restarted on it without any further delay.
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