| Tourism department turns land mafia; encroaches 40 hectares of forest land | | Court stays construction, seeks reply in four weeks | | Avinash Azad
JAMMU, Feb 7: The encroachments by land mafia across Jammu region are rampant, but in a bizarre case, Department of Tourism has attempted to encroach upon 40 hectares of Forest land illegally, and has even destroyed some green patches by constructing a road and hut in Chainpur forest closure Kalakote on January 15.
The adamant attitude of Tourism department compelled the local people to knock the door of court and in an important decision, Jammu and Kashmir High Court restrained all the departments and private persons, from doing any further damage.
Taking cognizance of writ petition filed by Advocate Surinder Singh Bharati, through Sr Adv Surinder Kour and Adv Davinder Preet Kour, the High Court restrained State Government and contractor from damaging the forest produce in survey number 39 min located Kalakot-Rajouri Road. As per court order, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat on February 6 had issued notice to respondent (State Government its functionaries) to file objection within four weeks. Earlier, on February 5, the petitioner filed a case in State High Court seeking immediate stay on the construction of hut on said land.
Dispute between two Govt departments erupted when, a contractor namely Mushtaq Qazi executed construction work of hut on forest land. "The land is under possession of forest department, where construction was started by the contractor and falls under survey number 39 village Chainpur, the compartment is well fenced by the forest department since 1971", said an official of forest department seeking anonymity.
He further said that on January 15, some officials of department noticed construction on said land and rushed on spot. "It was noticed by Forest Protection Force (FPF), that some known persons had illegally entered the forest land with JCB machine. Immediately a team of officials also rushed to spot and stopped the construction", the official said, adding that a person, who was claiming to be an official of tourism department managed to escape from the spot.
Later on, Range Forest Officer (RFO) Kalakot wrote a complaint of illegal construction on forest land to SHO Kalakot under Forest Conservation Act 1997. "After unsuccessful attempt made by contractor to grab the land, the RFO Kalakot deputed some FPF men on construction site, who have been camping there since January 15", the sources said, adding that during encroachment the JCB machine destroyed 15 poles and around 100 meters fence wire. |
|
