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| SMC may put hurdles into Govt’s road towards transparent governance | | Thousands of illegal structures in summer capital mock past regimes, their inefficacies | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Feb 26: The Jammu and Kashmir government’s drive against the illegal encroachments could face a major hurdle in Srinagar where the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has scandalously allowed thousands of illegal structures to bloom amid full public gaze.
Officials privy to this development told Early Times that there are riders in government’s latest move against the illegal structures in Srinagar as SMC in the past has allowed the mushrooming of the unlawful constructions in the city and that the inquiry committees constituted in the past have also been shelved by the past regimes with no action ever taken against the erring officials.
A committee was constituted by the government in 2009. Out of these 2500 illegal structures, the report submitted by the committee had mentioned that 1100 have come up without any permission and in gross violation of related law.
The report prepared by the high level committee comprising of additional commissioner Kashmir, vice chairman Srinagar Development Authority (SDA), commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), DC Srinagar, Chief Engineer Roads and Buildings and Special Secretary Housing and Urban Development was submitted to the government in time but the reason why this report was shelved and no follow-up action taken on the recommendations is best known to the authorities.
“This committee was framed under the order number 159-HUD of 2009 dated November 24, 2009. The committee identified 2500 structures which had come up in violation of master plan norms. This report stands submitted before the government, House committee and the High Court,” sources said, adding that this report has disclosed many surprising facts.“
Pertinently, the Srinagar Master Plan is applicable to a total of 417 square kilometres and out of this 160 square kilometres are looked after by Srinagar Development Authority (SDA). Rest of the square kilometres comes under the jurisdiction of SMC. Sources said that both the executing and implementing agencies of the Master Plan had issued notices 1100 violators but to no avail. Sources said there was no follow-up action after issuing these notices to the violators due to political interference mainly from the city based politicians presently ruling the state. “Instead of taking a strong action against the violators of Master Plan in view of the high level committee report, the government facilitated more violations since then,” reports informed.
Now when the government is making strenuous efforts to omit the loopholes in its urbanisation project, questions will keep haunting the authorities over whether they will rein in the SMC that otherwise had become hub of all wrong doings when it comes to permitting the illegal structures to galore. |
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