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| J&K Babus prevail over Supreme Court ban; 1.5 KM radius area demarcated as Patnitop, rest available for construction activity | | Threat to Ecology | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Jan 13: In breach of Supreme Court order putting a blanket ban on the construction activity in and around ecologically sensitive Patnitop area, state government got area of 1.5 kilometers in radius demarcated as territorial jurisdiction of Patnitop to ensure builders wreak havoc outside this limit.
Within months of getting the demarcation done, Buildings Operations and Controlling Authority (BO-CA) of Patnitop Develo-pment Authority (PDA) stepped in and gave 13 building permissions. If the sources are to be believed, state government got area falling under ecologically sensitive Patnitop demarcated in the wake of silent lobbying by politically well-connected Bureauc-rats, Police Officers, Forest Officials and Contractors who have purchased several Kanals of land in various parts of Patnitop.
After the demarcation, sources said that major chunk of forest area which is presently called Patnitop, has become available for construction and building purposes. They added that General Administration Department (GAD) framed a high level five member committee consisting of CEO of Patnitop Develo-pment Authority, ACR (Udhampur), ACR (Ramban), DFO (Udhampur) and DFO (Batote). This committee was entrusted with the task of defining the territorial limits of Patnitop tourist spot.
Committee was asked to define territorial jurisdiction after the government found out through these interested Sarkari tycoons that there is no mention of Patnitop in the revenue records. The five member committee seemingly bowed to the wishes of high profile VIPs
and demarcated 1.5 kilometers radius from the Chowk of Patnitop as ecologically sensitive but did not bother to get the same vetted from the Supreme Court of India (SCI) which has imposed the ban.
According to sources, Buildings Operations and Controlling Authority (BOCA) of Patnitop Development Authority (PDA) has allowed building construction even within 1.5 kilometer radius. They added that some hotels and private buildings have come up in village Karla, which is hardly 0.3 miles from Chowk of Patnitop. Sources maintained that the five member committee had advised the government to get the demarcation of Patnitop tourist spot vetted from Supreme Court of India.
Unknown urgency of state government especially General Administration Department (GAD) and Tourism ministry resulted in BOCA allowing building construction in Karla, Pachot and Gaurikund villages, said an official source. He added that the high profile IAS, IPS and IFS
officers lobby is preventing Patnitop from being denoted as village in
revenue records since the same would act as major hindrance in their multi-crore aims and ambitions of building chain of hotels and private residential houses.
Sources further said that tourism department recently approved 13 building permission cases without seeking even a primary level clearance either from the Forest or the Environment Department.
However, when the Director was asked, he referred to DFO signing the Environmental Clearance Cases (ECC) on behalf of the forest
department, a claim which was vehemently denied by the then DFO of Udhampur Forest Range Sajjad Mufti. He said "Environmental Clearance is neither my domain nor am I a member of BOCA. How can I do such a thing?."
This raises a serious question on the manner in which tourism ministry as well as General Administration Department (GAD) has been brushing aside the directions of Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) of Supreme
Court of India (SCI). It is ironical that government had failed to take cognizance of some VIPs and VVIPs vandalizing the flora and fauna of Patnitop hill resort. Sources said that grievance cell of Chief
Minister has received several complaints from locals but preferred to brush all those under carpet.
"A probe would unveil reality behind demarcation of Patnitop. This has been done to benefit certain blue-eyed IAS, IPS and IFS Babus. 13
building permissions is a test case. If the government remains silent, Patnitop would become another environmental or ecological casualty in J&K," said an official of forest department. He added that building activity has begun and would be intensified in the days ahead since the J&K govt has become habitual of taking SC orders lightly.
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