PIL seeking rehabilitation of Saddal village inhabitants
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 21: Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal has directed that the project regarding rehabilitation of inhabitants of village Saddal, which was devastated by massive landslide in the year 2014, be placed before the Chief Secretary so that all the clearances and permissions are granted as early as possible.
This significant order has been passed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the displaced inhabitants of village Saddal in tehsil Mongri of Udhampur district, which was devastated due to landslide in the year 2014. The writ petition has been necessitated on account of the failure of the respondents to take any steps to rehabilitate the landslide affected families for the past over five years.
After hearing Advocate Deepika Mahajan for the PIL whereas Senior AAG SS Nanda for the Union Territory and going through the compliance report, Division Bench observed, “we are astonished to see that the only effort made therein is to propound the estimated cost of work while the timeline merely states that the work could be completed within four or eight months from the date the funds are made available and subject to the allotment of land”, adding “this is clearly an effort to push the responsibility from one department to another”.
The DB further said, “the court orders mandated that a complete chain of the manner in which the matter of rehabilitations would proceed is placed in a composite affidavit to be filed by the departments concerned. This kind of piece-meal consideration is, to say the least, most unfortunate”.
“Given the distress of the population concerned, we have no option but to direct that this matter be placed before the Chief Secretary, who may examine the matter and ensure that all clearances and permissions as are necessary for execution of the project of rehabilitation of these affected families/population are granted, the rehabilitation commenced and completed at the earliest and ensure that firm time lines are placed before us”, the DB directed, adding “all this shall be done as expeditiously as possible, given the dire conditions in which the effected families are living”.
The DB noticed that various Government departments are uniformly adopting this practice of looking at every matter from the perspective of that department alone, even though the matter requires inter- departmental consultation. “Let a mechanism be evolved so that, court cases are addressed from the perspective of placing a composite stand of the Government after inter-departmental consultation”, the DB directed.
The DB further directed the respondents to also examine the issues relating to avalanches/natural disasters and consequential reliefs/ rehabilitation/ compensation. If no SPO/policy is in place, the same be formulated and placed before the court.
The disaster victims are stated to have been shifted to village Panjar and live in dismal conditions in tents. For the reason that Panjar was also unsafe, the villagers were shifted to village Sui where they have been put in two big halls with temporary partitions in spaces of 10’X10′. The villagers have complained that, shockingly, neither adequate or appropriate toilet facilities nor running drinking water even have been provided to them.
In this background, the DB had called for a report from the Secretary, Relief and Rehabilitation of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Pawan Kotwal, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department had appeared before the court on 5th of February 2020 and assured that the complete module for rehabilitation which would include the transfer of land; the lay out plan; the proposed infrastructure and facilities; the development and construction which has to be undertaken as well as allotment of land to the affected persons with the specific dates and timelines within which the same would be completed, shall be placed before the court.
It was further assured that the nodal officers not below the rank of Directors in the concerned departments, who would be responsible for ensuring that the timelines are adhered to, would be appointed.
“We had consequently given time to Senior AAG S S Nanda to place before us a proper timeline of the various steps needed. This has not been done despite opportunities granted on February 5, 2020 and March 13, 2020”, the DB observed, adding “what is placed before us is the contents of a letter of the Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, who is stated to have furnished a DPR along with timelines. We are astonished to see that the only effort made therein is to propound the estimated cost of work while the timeline merely states that the work could be completed within four or eight months from the date the funds are made available to this office and subject to the allotment of land”.
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