Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 11: Though already in the dock for non-serious approach towards illegal constructions in the capital cities of the State and holy town of Katra, the Housing and Urban Development Department is yet not ready to bring several facts to the fore about this grave issue and has even tried to mislead the State High Court by submitting vague status report.
Moreover, instead of coming up with a concrete policy to check such constructions, those at the helm of affairs in the department are busy in justifying the enactment of Jammu and Kashmir Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 whereby action against already committed violations was suspended.
In a latest status report filed by Additional Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department in response to a petition challenging the Civil Laws (Special Provisions) Act, the department has not specifically mentioned as to when the revised Master Plans would be in place, which was otherwise made ground for suspension of action against the already committed violations.
Moreover, it has not been mentioned as to what activities have been performed by those committees, which were constituted to check illegal constructions after enactment of J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014.
According to the report, Master Plans for cities of Srinagar, Jammu and Katra were notified vide SRO 28 dated December 30, 2003, SRO-263 dated August 9, 2004 and SRO 399 dated November 23, 2007 respectively. As per Rules, the Master Plan is required to be reviewed and revised after every five years to account for such modifications and corrections that emerge based on ground realities.
“As the review of Master Plans takes some time for being a matter of great detail and of technical nature, decision was taken in the light of the recommendations of the House Committee to evolve a policy with regard to violations and accordingly Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act was enacted for a period up to March 31, 2015 or till revised Master Plan is put in place”, the report said while justifying the Act preventing action against already committed violations.
However, the status report is completely silent about the period within which revision of Master Plan would be completed for which even technical committees have also been constituted. In this way, the exception about continuation of Act till finalization of Master Plans is going to be a clear favour for those violators, who have already thrown laid down provisions to the winds while raising illegal constructions.
Moreover, in the status report the Housing and Urban Development Department has not mentioned about the exercise carried out by the technical committees till date.
Though the status report states that Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act contains specific provisions to ensure that no fresh violations take place after its enactment in April this year and even committees have been constituted to ensure that no further violation takes place yet the department has not mentioned as to how many fresh violations have come to the notice of these committees and what action has been taken against the violators.
These committees constituted vide Government Order No.157-HUD dated April 15, 2014 by Satish Nehru, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department were supposed to submit reports periodically but, according to the reliable official sources, none of these committees have so far furnished any report.
“Due to this, illegal constructions as well as violations of the Master Plans are continuing unhindered”, sources further said.
When asked, they said, “exercise for revision of Master Plan cannot be completed in near future as extension of limits of Jammu Development Authority on the pattern of Srinagar Development Authority has not been cleared by the State Cabinet”.
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