Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 29: Establishing that planned development of major towns of the State is least priority for the PDP-BJP Coalition Government, Master Plans of Kathua, Reasi, Akhnoor and Doda have been gathering dust in the official files of the Housing and Urban Development Department during the past many years. Moreover, there is no focus on strengthening of Town Planning Organization which otherwise plays an important role in guiding the Government to check haphazard growth of the towns and cities.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in order to prepare Master Plans of all the major towns of the State the Town Planning Organization had engaged consultants several years ago as per the directions of the Housing and Urban Development Department and huge amount was paid to them for the exercise aimed at ensuring planned growth of the towns.
The Town Planning Organization had submitted Doda Master Plan to the Housing and Urban Development Department on February 21, 2014 while Kathua Master Plan was placed before the senior officers of the department on April 2, 2014.
Similarly, the Master Plans of Reasi and Akhnoor were placed before the Housing and Urban Development Department on September 15, 2017 and November 21, 2017 respectively for further necessary action at its end.
However, all these Master Plans have been gathering dust in the official files of the Housing and Urban Development Department since then, sources informed, adding “neither any query has been raised on these Master Plans nor further steps have been initiated so as to pave the way for their implementation”.
As per the laid down procedure, the Housing and Urban Development Department is supposed to establish Development Authorities for all these four towns and then start the process of inviting objections and suggestions on the respective Master Plan. After disposal of objections and suggestions through a specially constituted committee the department is required place the Master Plans before the State Cabinet for final approval.
“This exercise could not be started till date because of the non-serious approach of the Housing and Urban Development Department”, sources said, adding “due to the slackness of the department several years long detailed exercise by the Consultants engaged by the Town Planning Organization has failed to yield the desired results”.
They further said, “the prevailing situation has exposed the tall claims of the Government that planned development of the towns has been flagged as priority sector”, adding “if this is the situation of the priority sector what could be the fate of non-priority sectors can be easily gauged”.
When contacted, an officer of Town Planning Organization said, “neither we have received any query from the Housing and Urban Development Department nor any discussion has been initiated on the Master Plans of Kathua, Reasi, Doda and Akhnoor”.
Responding to a specific query, the officer said, “the Town Planning Organization is on the job to finalize the Master Plans of Ramban and Banihal”.
Moreover, the Government has failed to initiate steps to strengthen Town Planning Organization despite the fact that this body has an important role to play in guiding the Government on major aspects of planned development.
“The Town Planning Organization doesn’t have sufficient number of qualified Town Planners despite having huge responsibilities to handle”, they said, adding “in the absence of the trained manpower what wonders the Organization can do vis-à-vis preparing blue-print for planned development can be easily presumed”.
The intensity of non-seriousness towards Town Planning Organization can be gauged from the fact that it has not even been provided modern equipment and laboratories required in the multi-disciplinary field of town planning, sources said, adding “it is due to failure of the Government to provide all the facilities to this organization that preparation of Master Plans is outsourced to the private companies”.
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