Mohammad Hamzah
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 27: Over the past few years, many prominent hoteliers have been plundering forestland in Pahalgam, the flagship of J&K's tourism industry, by raising illegal and unauthorised constructions-despite a blanket ban imposed by the J&K High Court.
These constructions have taken place right under the nose of officials and more often than not in collusion with them, according to the details available with Early Times.
The building permission norms in Pahalgam-the area falls under Anantnag, native district of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-say that the height of a building should not exceed more than 28 feet. However, most of the hotels are 50 feet high.
And very few of the owners of these hotels huts have acquired permission either from Building and Operation Control Authority (BOCA), authorized to grant permission, or the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA).
"If any hotelier or hut owner has the building permission, they seldom follow the necessary guidelines before undertaking any sort of construction," sources told Early Times.
For instance, two of the famous hotels of Pahalgam have 75 rooms and 150 blocks respectively, though they were granted permission for 50 and 100 only. Hotel Pine Spring was given permission by the PDA for constructing two huts with not more than 15 rooms on his three kanals of land in Larkipora area. But he went on to build a 3-storey hotel with about 70 rooms.
"No official could dare to stop the illegal construction as Sheikh Iqbal, owner of the Hotel Pine Spring, happens to be a cousin of former Chief Minister and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah. Besides many other violations, the sewerage from the hotel directly empties into the gushing Lidder(river that flows through the heart of Pahalgam)," a senior member of Peoples Welfare Organisation (PWO), a Pahalgam-based apolitical body, which has filed a PIL in the High Court over the issue, said.
Another hotel, Hotel Baisaran, allegedly owned by a senior separatist leader, has been constructed in a residential area, where no commercial structure is allowed.
Similarly, Hotel Royal Hilton is situated in an area designated as 'green zone' in the previous Master Plan, but the new Master Plan, apparently framed to benefit the big guns, placed this area that is full of pine trees in the 'permissible zone'. Subsequently, the hotelier got permission for 150-room hotel. Its sewage directly pours into Baisaran nallah that ultimately finds its way into the Lidder.
Hotel Hilltop, located in Pahalgam market, was named as Pine View before its present owner took it over. PDA gave him permission for minor repairing, but he went on to demolish the old building, which had only 40 rooms and constructed a new structure with 125 rooms.
The court has already imposed a blanket ban on all sorts of construction in Pahalgam following the PIL filed by the PWO.
"On one hand the authorities don't allow the locals to even repair their residential houses, but at the same time they don't hesitate in facilitating the illegal activities of influential people who are destroying Pahalgam," the PWO member said.
Details reveal that Mir Naseem, the former Chief Town Planner of Pahalgam had fraudulently acquired land measuring 30 kanals under survey no. 825, 827, 835 and 836 in 1999 through gift deed in the name of a trusted aide. Naseem's brother Dr Javaid Mir, who owns a nursing home in Srinagar, managed to get permission for construction of 10 huts near Hotel Hill Park despite failing to fulfill many of the requirements in such an ecologically fragile zone. The area, according to PWO, was 'deliberately' included in the permissible zone in the Master Plan in 2006 by Naseem to facilitate construction of huts for his brother.
In his letter (vide No. BOCA/66/625-32/ToP dated 26-07-2007) addressed to CEO, PDA, then Assistant Director Tourism, Pahalgam-one of the few honest bureaucrats-had objected to the construction of huts by Dr Javaid.
The letter reads: "On spot inspection, I was shocked to see that a large number of pine trees seem to have been systematically lopped and their bark removed in order to render the pines dead and thereby paving way for the proposed constructions.
This seems to be conscious mischievous activity, and this vandalism of forest cover and destruction of nature on this scale merits an enquiry through relevant agencies. Accordingly, it is requested to initiate the process required to enquire into this seemingly willful destruction of forest cover."
The aforesaid letter was submitted, among others, to Secretary to Government, Tourism Department, J&K, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Director Tourism Kashmir.
The letter however failed to evoke any response. As a result Dr Javaid managed to get permission for construction of huts. |
