Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 22: The State High Court today directed the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) to furnish the details of the wards and their officers where the Master Plan violations have taken place in Srinagar city and also sought action taken report against the violators.
According to sources, at least 1800 major violations of Srinagar Master Plan have been reported in Srinagar city where commercial complexes, hotels, schools have come up in the residential areas over past one decade with no parking space leading to choking of the city that has great tourism significance.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magray today passed directions while hearing the Public Interest Litigation titled Mujeeb Andrabi V/S State, seeking to make Srinagar a hawker-free city and removing illegal constructions from the city.
The Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) in whose jurisdiction major violations have taken place especially along Srinagar Bypass with residential houses converted into shopping malls, showrooms with the active connivance of the top officials have submitted a copy of the Srinagar Master Plan to the court.
The Court directed the SMC, that has failed to stop gross violations of Master Plan, to submit a report containing the names of all inspectors, ward officers and names of the wards where the illegal constructions have taken place.
The Court has directed that the report should also indicate all the violations of any Building Operations Controlling Authority (BOCA) permissions.
The Court has also directed that the report should also contain the action taken by the Inspectors, ward officers against Master Plan violators.
Earlier the Advocate General, Mohammad Ishaq Qadri had informed the Court about the areas of Srinagar City where large scale violations of Master Plan have taken place. He had informed the court that residential areas have been converted into commercial hubs in violation of the law.
The Division Bench had appointed senior counsel Reyaz Jan as the Amicus Curiae in the case after observing the gravity of the violations.
The PIL also sought directions to remove all illegal structures erected in violation of Master Plan stating that the SMC Commissioner has failed to check the menace of illegal constructions and that the supervising powers be assigned to Divisional Commissioner Kashmir.
Seeking directions to clear the hawkers menace, the PIL stated that it has made the life of residents of City miserable and it also slows down the traffic movement on roads which already face heavy vehicular traffic and hawkers also occupy them.
It may be mentioned here that from around 1200 footpath vendors along the Residency Road-Batamaloo road in 2011, the number of hawkers has shot up by nearly six times to 7,000.
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