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| Commissioner Secretary H&UDD gives damn to CM's directions | | Orders abolishing of Gulmarg, Pahalgam municipal committees | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 20: In a typical case of bureaucratic 'hegemony' an IAS officer has virtually bye-passed the directions of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed by issuing an 'arbitrary' order according to which independent character of two local bodies in Kashmir is all set to go.
Commissioner Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Bipul Pathak issued an order under two separate SROs by virtue of which it has been ordered that Municipal Committees of Pahalgam and Gulmarg would be abolished. Interestingly, both these committees were established during the Dogra rule dating back to more than seven decades.
"SRO 149:- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 9 of the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act 2000, the Government hereby abolish Municipal Committee, Pahalgam constituted vide Order No.908C dated 29.03.1942," wrote Bipul Pathak in the order HUD/LSG/ULBK/117/2015 Dated 19-05-2015.
The Commissioner Secretary issued an identical order for abolishing the Municipal Committee, Gulmarg.
"SRO 150:- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 9 of the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act 2000, the Government hereby abolish Municipal Committee, Gulmarg constituted vide Order No.1108C dated 20.01.1942," the order reads.
It would be in place to mention here that the government had decided to outsource the sanitation and allied services at four health resorts of the state from the Housing and Urban Development department to Tourism Development Authorities. The decision was taken in the last month and after that formal communication was sent to the higher ups of Housing and Urban Development department.
On 1-4-2015, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister wherein it was decided that sanitation and cleanliness arrangements at Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonamarg and Patnitop will be outsourced under properly defined contractual framework. This decision was listed on agenda number 4 of the meeting.
"Municipalities/Urban Local Bodies at Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Patnitop and Sonamarg will be brought under the administrative and financial control of the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the concerned Tourism Development Authorities. Modalities in this regard will be worked out," reads the decision taken with respect to agenda number 6 of the meeting. Following the decisions taken during the meeting, the Housing and Urban Development department shot letters to Directors of Urban Local Bodies, Kashmir and Jammu asking them to take the necessary action with respect to the financial and administrative control of the Development Authorities over the latest arrangement.
Pertinently sanitation and allied services at Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Patnitop and Sonamarg were being looked after by the respective municipal committees. The latest order was all set to disturb the overall set up of functions of these municipal committees and in fact worst has happened.
The order issued by Commissioner Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department is totally in contravention to the directions issued by Mufti during the meeting held in April. While as the chief minister had passed directions that municipal committees of Pahalgam and Gulmarg should be brought under the administrative and financial control of concerned Tourism Development Authorities, the concerned Commissioner Secretary issued an arbitrary asking for the winding up of the two municipal committees. |
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