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| Govt. to face embarrassment during a legal battle over cancellation of 31 allotments in Bahu Plaza | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu |Sep 24
The state Government in general and the Chief Minister in particular are likely to face an embarrassing situation when those,whose allotment of shops and halls in Bahu Plaza complex,has been cancelled.The aggrieved persons are busy in collecting relevant records from the Jammu Development Authority and in engaging noted lawyers from outside the state for filing a petition in the High Court challenging the cancellation order.What seems to have intrigued the allotees and senior bureaucrats is the way Chief Minister,Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad,had been egged by reports that his close kin,Sajjad Ahmed Bhat,had been allotted premises in the Bahu Plaza complex on the recommendation of a minister incharge JDA. Number of bureaucrats, including those who have remained associated with the JDA working, said that the Chief Minister had been misguided to the extent that the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors of the JDA had not been attached with the report on the controversy sent by the JDA vice chairman ,Mr Ashok Parmar to the Chief Minister.
One senior Government functionary said that during the 64th meeting of the Board of Directors of the JDA a decision was taken to allot shops and halls on first come first serve basis after the JDA had failed to get the buyers through open auction system. He said that March 31,2005 had been set as deadline for filing of the application. During the 66th meeting of the Board of Directors a decision was taken to extend the date in order to provide sufficient time for the applicants.
He said for these issues the Board of Directors was the competent authority and the Governments reason that allotment was made without approval from the competent authority.
Some of the allotees said that if the Chief Minister felt embarrassed over the report that his close kin was allotted a shop he should have examined this single issue instead of canceling allotment of 30 others. They said that “we had deposited the money in response to the JDA’s letter and we had not violated any norm.” They said “many among us had spent several lakhs of rupees on development of shops and halls which included fixing furniture and furnishings.”
Another senior bureaucrat said that Mr Azad has always favored honest officers taking decisions on their own and if a decision on allotting shops in Bahu Plaza had been taken after adopting proper norms there was no need for the Chief Minister to reverse the decision on allotment simply to save his skin.
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