Funds not available, all eyes on Central Govt assistance
Barbed wire fencing of acquired land too pending
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 12: Though more than one year has lapsed since the laying of its foundation stone yet work on new High Court complex at Raika in the outskirts of Jammu city has failed to begin mainly because the Union Territory Government doesn’t have enough resources to fund the mega project. Even the barbed wire fencing of the acquired land has not been conducted in order to protect it from any sort of encroachment.
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The foundation stone of mega project was laid by the Chief Justice of India Dr Justice D Y Chandrachud in the presence of Lieutenant Governors of J&K and Ladakh Union Territories and Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court on June 28, 2023.
The project was conceptualized as the existing campus of High Court Jammu Wing is in a decrepit state and suffers on various factors. Moreover, the existing High Court building is unsafe from fire safety standards as well as from security point of view and the record rooms are overflowing and large number of files have been dumped in the garages.
At the foundation stone laying ceremony, it was revealed that the new campus will have all multi-disciplinary facilities for an effective judicial eco-system and the complex will have 35 court rooms and space for expansion up to 70 court rooms. Further, it will also have chambers for 1000 lawyers with space for expansion for the years.
However, even after the lapse of more than one year the work on the project has not commenced mainly for want of funds, official sources told EXCELSIOR, “what to talk of initiating work on the mega project even fencing of the land acquired by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs from the Forest Department has not been conducted, which otherwise is imperative to thwart any attempt of encroachment”.
Disclosing that High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh doesn’t have enough resources to fund this project, sources said, “earlier the budgetary assistance to the High Court from the J&K Government was to the tune of Rs 60 crore per annum and the same has now been enhanced to Rs 80 crore per annum as such sparing money from this amount for the mega project is not practically possible”.
“Moreover, the J&K Government doesn’t have enough resources for funding this project as such all eyes are on the Central Government assistance to kick start work on the project”, sources further said while informing that more than Rs 900 crore are required for completion of new High Court complex at Raika.
In response to a question, sources said, “in the next few days Chief Justice (Acting) of J&K and Ladakh High Court Justice Tashi Rabstan is likely to call Finance Secretary of the J&K Government to ascertain how much funds the UT administration can provide for this project”, adding “thereafter, all out efforts will be made to get the new High Court complex at Jammu as well as Srinagar incorporated in some financial package of the Government of India so as to ensure their smooth execution”.
About the new High Court complex at Srinagar, they said, “work is going on at present as at the time of laying of its foundation stone in the year 2022 an amount of around Rs 100 crore was released. However, even for completion of this project smooth funding source is required”.
When contacted, a senior engineer of the Roads and Buildings Department said, “our office has recently received Administrative Approval for barbed wire fencing of the land at Raika in Jammu and after completion of other formalities the work will begin. “At present it is very difficult to specify any time-frame for start of work on the main project as source of funding is yet to be decided”, he said while wishing anonymity.
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