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| Govt admits errors in Srinagar Master Plan, passes buck to consultants | | Officials who allowed vandalism roam scot-free | |
Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
srinagar, Oct 15: There are meagre chances that the consultants who prepared a flawed Srinagar Master Plan would ever be brought to the book with the case gathering dust at civil Secretariat here due to official negligence and favouritism.
As the implementation of the much hyped Srinagar Master Plan has been kept in limbo since years, sources revealed to Early Times that the basic reason behind the inordinate delay was the flawed master plan prepared by the consultants. More ironic is that the serious aspects of the master plan including development trajectory, proposed land use map, zonation, building bye laws and social infrastructure planning. "Though the draft of the master plan was put on public domain for the suggestions from the general masses, it invited brickbats for the department as people started questioning the leftover aspects and smelled rat in the entire process," sources said.
It was informed further that the draft of the Master Plan was later found flawed and hence dropped out. "Then the entire process had to be started afresh and that was indeed a cumbersome exercise and the system was messed up to the great extent. It was prima facie found that the consultants who drafted the master plan left several key aspects unattended and it drained a lot of money out of the state exchequer," said an official privy to the development.
It was informed further that the issue of preparing the master plan draft with flaws was taken at a high level but there was no action taken at all against anyone who was accused. "There are people in the corridors of power who have themselves violated the master plan. They want the entire process to remain at a grinding halt," sources revealed, adding that the main reason for such a delay in the master plan implementation is that the corruption has marred the entire process with involved roaming scot-free.
The state authorities had earlier claimed that in the new Master Plan the city limits will be expanded by 340 sq kilometers. At present the city limits stand at 416 sq km and with the new addition the city will expand up to 756 sq km. However, due to brazen violations of Master Plan, the government is mulling to take some tough calls that include ascertaining the reasons behind the non serious approach of the consultants in drafting the master plan and SMC's approach in stopping the violation to happen.
A senior official within the government said that the cases against the SMC officials against violating the master plan norms only pile up at the anti graft bodies of the state while their parent department is not fully cooperating to punish the guilty.
In 2000, Master Plan for Srinagar was drafted which was approved in 2003. Later in 2011 given the emerging city requirements and more urbanisation, the government felt the need to revise the plan.
However, because of a number of flaws kept in the plan Ahmadabad-based consultancy firm - SAI Consultants, it is being revised by the town planning experts. |
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