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| Cong, NC give encroachers 'Azadi'; one year to legalise illegal buildings, structures | | LC passes bill! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Feb 26: State legislative council today sealed fate of high court order seeking demolition or sealing of the buildings or structures which have come up in complete violation of the master plans of Srinagar, Jammu and Katra.
Council passed a law which not only forbids operation of the high court order but seemingly gives one year time to the encroachers to legalise their illegal structures. Under this new law, if any authority seeks to take action against any unauthorised structure coming up in the city, it has to seek prior permission from the administrative Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department or from an officer authorised by him in this behalf.
In other words, government has forbid its own agencies from taking action against land grabbers and those who have encroached state land or forest land in any part of the state. This law was passed by the legislative council under strange circumstances with Congress legislators Ghulam Nabi Monga and Ravinder Sharma voting against the bill. Monga had sought amendments to the act which Minister for Urban Development Nawang Rigzin Jora outrightly refused.
Monga wanted Jora to reduce moratorium period from one year to 3 months. Jora disagreed but Monga pressed the amendments. Barring NCs Devinder Rana and Jugal Kishore of Congress, all other members who spoke on the bill opposed it for one reason or the other but when it came to voting, they preferred silence and allowed passage of the bill without even a Whimper.
PDP and JKNPP legislators staged walk out from the legislative council in protest against the passage of this bill. They termed the bill 'Muk Mukka' and said that it is aimed at benefitting few blue-eyed ones and has nothing for the people of this state who are the worst sufferers. Nayeem Akhtar of PDP while speaking over the bill said that the bill is aimed at giving amnesty to those people who are well-connected and have connections in the highest corridors of power.
This bill originated from a judicial intervention and so powerful are those hands that they managed to stall court orders. They forced the government to go on backfoot and introduce a bill which is aimed at giving them one year to legalise their illegal structures and buildings, said Nayeem while adding that it is the responsibility of legislators not to allow this house top become somebody's 'keep'.
"We strongly oppose this bill. If we pass this bill, it would be giving legal cover to illegality" said Nayeem. He was supported by his colleague Mohammed Asharaf Mir and JKNPP legislator Syed Rafiq Shah. The word 'Keep' led to acrimonious exchange of words between PDP Nayeem Akhtar and NC's Devinder Rana. Ran objected to this word and said that it should be expunged since it is unparliamentarily and against the norms of the house. Akhtar retorted and said 'I do not need to learn from you rules and regulations."
Ravinder Sharma of Congress chipped in and said that whether the word should be expunged or need should be left on the wisdom of Chairman of the Legislative Council. "Let the chair decide. We have to see in which context this word has been spoken," Sharma said. This was followed by Rana giving a detailed account of why the bill should be allowed to pass and become law.
Jugal Kishore of Congress was the only other legislator who spoke in support of the bill. All other legislators who spoke raised objections to one or the other sections of the bill. Those who spoke and first raised objections and later backtracked included NC's Khalid Najeeb Suharwardhy, Syed Bashir Veeri, Ghulam Qadir Pardesi, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed while from Congress, those who took a u-turn included Naresh Gupta and Jahangir Mir. They first opposed the bill but when Rana and Jugal spoke in favour of the bill, these legislators took u-turn and voted for the passage of bill.
Monga stood firm against the passage of bill and was supported by two PDP legislators, one JKNPP MLC and one Congress MLC Ravinder Sharma. He pressed for voting but his verbally proposed amendments were defeated by voice vote. |
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