Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Nov 18: Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed Commissioner/Secretaries of Finance, Planning and Housing and Urban Development Department to appear before the court tomorrow to explain their position with regard to release of funds for conservation and protection of world famous Dal Lake.
The Division Bench of Justice Hasnain Masoodi and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey sought personal appearance of these Commissioner Secretaries by tomorrow for explaining their position regarding release of funds to LAWDA and failure for attaching the erring officials of enforcement wing of LAWDA.
Court, however, said that if charge of any of these officials is held with the Chief Secretary then let him depute the next officer in the hierarchy in the said department for presence before the court tomorrow.
Court deferred the effective hearing of the PIL by tomorrow for appearance of these Commissioner Secretaries for explaining their position, as it has been brought to the notice of the court that only 7 erring officials of enforcement wing of LAWDA have been attached till date and no funds for conservation of the lake are being released by the Government.
During the proceeding of the case Vice Chairman of LAWDA, Sarmand Hafeez, divulged before the court that National Lakes Conservation Project was made in the year 2005 and Rs 298.76 crores were kept for the conservation of Nigeen and Dal lake but for the last 2 years no funds have been released by the Central Government except Rs 159.44 crores were provided by the end of December 2010 and only Rs 15 crores have been released this year which are still lying with the State Government and due to non availability of funds Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) and other machinery suffers loss.
Court expressed its anguish for non implementation of its earlier order regarding attachment of erring officials in the enforcement wing of LAWDA as only 7 officers up to the rank of inspector have been attached so for. Among these 7 persons one was attached before the court direction.
“You are adopting normal procedure while as the case is not so simple”, court observed. The court asked State counsel for attachment of higher official in the enforcement wing and asked the counsel for complete list of these erring officers after attaching them.
Court with regard to sealing of illegal and unauthorized structures observed that it (sealing) is not the solution. “A team should go and check whether attachment has been done or not”, observed the court.
About the demarcation of 200 meters as prohibited area for construction for the information of general public, report of LAWDA says the installation of sign posts is estimated to cost of Rs 15.5 lakhs and funds in this connection are being demanded from the Government.
For identifying the erring officials in the enforcement wing in whose jurisdiction the construction have come up, it is submitted that records of the wing have got damaged in the last year floods and assistance of enforcement Officer is taken for identifying the erring officials by conducting preliminary enquiry.
“Simultaneously the Authority (LAWDA) has also submitted to the Government list of Enforcement Officers (DSP’s) or action at their end. The Government has also been requested to strengthen the enforcement wing and provide the authority with dedicated officers and officials in pursuance of the court directions for watch and ward of the lake”, says the report of LAWDA.
The report says that the assets of Lake need to be operated and maintained regularly which of course require annual budgetary support under non plan from the State Government. “The working season of this financial year is now almost over and not a single penny has been released by the Government to LAWDA under operation and maintenance head of account so for this year and in these circumstances operation and maintenance of these assets definitely suffer”, say Hafeez in his report.
With regard to the shifting of Dal dwellers report says the removal of structures and shifting of families from inside the Lake is dependent of development of plots at Rakh-i-Arth. “There have been and still are bottlenecks for execution of this project and tremendous delay and hassles in acquisition of material for filling of site and mismatch on requirement of funding”, reads the report.
Court after perusal of the report observed that the situation about discharging of effluents into the Lake is alarming as the report reveals that untreated discharge going into lake is 879391 cubic meters per day comprises of two parts. “One is inflow from the peripheries on account of Sewerage and drainage i.e 6950 cubic meters per day and second is the dominant inflow from streams and Nallahs i.e 872441 cubic meters per day”, reveals the report.
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