| Govt's 'dual' approach | | Furore over Sainik colony, silence over settlement of NPRs in Jammu | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 31: As the furore over Sainik Colony and resettlement of original inhabitants Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir Valley refuses to die down, PDP-BJP alliance government in intriguingly silent over clusters of such colonies where non resident people (outsiders) have settled themselves in Jammu. By its own admission, there are at least 3 Non Permanent Resident colonies in Jammu besides a number of unauthorized residential areas where people from outside the state have been living for years.
The government has admitted in the legislature that there are dozens of colonies in Jammu which have come up over the years in an unauthorized manner. The government envisages to regularize some of the identified colonies. While the government has given vague reason for establishment of such colonies, rapid growth of urbanization and job opportunities in urban areas being the main cause contended for their settlement on peripheral areas of Jammu city, the worrying factor ignored and overlooked by the successive governments is that many outsiders have permanently settled in these areas on fake identity proofs.
Sources said while the government has itself identified 21 unauthorized colonies falling under JMC and JDA, there are places more than the list identified by the government which have come up in an illegal way in connivance with the government officials and powerful politicians at various levels who have facilitated settlement of outsiders in such residential clusters in Jammu. This not only rips apart the very basis of the special status and sensitive Article 370 but exposes the double standard, dual approach of the present day government in dealing with the issue. On one hand the government has raised pitch and is affirmative about not allowing any settlements like the proposed Sainik colony, not even separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmr, on the other hand it is silent over settlement of non permanent residents in Jammu.
Sources further said that apart from identified unauthorized colonies in and around Jammu city, many areas have become home to outsiders at places like Bhatindi, Chowadi, Sunjwan, Bajalta in Sidhra and even at some places in the Jammu city too, for whom no eyebrows get raised either in political circles nor do they face resistance from any quarter in the govern |
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