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| NEWS ANALYSIS | | Sonali’s order prevails, despite `warning’ | | SANT KUMAR SHARMA
Jammu, December 1:
Senior IAS officer, Mrs Sonali Kumar, has been issued a ``warning’’ by the chief secretary, Mr S S Kapur, for issuing Government Order No 148-SFT of 2005 dated 29-03-2005.
The warning has been issued mainly because of the grant of permission by the Forest Department for use of forest land by Shri Amar Nath Ji Shrine Board (SASB). The allegation against Mrs Kumar is that wide GO 148-SFT, she permitted use of 3,642 kanals of forest land for non-forestry purposes in favour of the SASB.
Incidentally, the warning is based on recommendation of the then law minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussein Beigh, and not the present incumbent, Mr Ali Mohammed Sagar. Yet, one thing becomes clear from the warning that the ruling National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have similar views on the Amarnath land row.
Paradoxical as it may seem, despite issuing a ``warning’’ to her, the government has failed to withdraw or cancel the said order. Strange as it may seem, the order is still in force and three or four of her successors in the forest department have failed to quash or nullify it.
The root cause of last year’s Amarnath land row, which led to a violent Jammu versus Kashmir agitation, with huge communal overtones, was an attempt to nullify the essence of GO-148-FST.
At one level, this order constitutes the ``original sin’’ in the context of the Amarnath land row.
The Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government had set aside Mrs Kumar’s orders in favour of the SASB through Forest Department’s order no 210-FST of 2005 dated 20-05-2005. However, a Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court had stayed GO 210-FST.
Successive governments have failed to get this stay vacated. In fact, during the chief ministership of Ghulam Nabi Azad, the wheel turned full circle and he got an order issued on May 20, 2008, which went beyond Mrs Kumar’s order as far as the diversion of land to SASB is concerned.
On May 20, 2008, the cabinet presided over by Mr Azad took a decision (94/7) after which Government Order No 104-FST of 2008 dated 26-05-2008 was issued. By this GO, sanction was accorded to the diversion of ``forest land measuring 39.88 ha (hectares) falling under compartment No 63a/Sindh, in block Kullan, Range Sindh, Sindh Forest Division for raising pre-fabricated structures only for camping purposes for pilgrims’’.
The rescinding of this cabinet decision, following pressure from the PDP in an attempt to save the Azad government, lit the spark of land row agitation in the Jammu region. The agitation finally died down only after the August 30, 2008, agreement between the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti and the government.
For ensuring sanity and quelling the agitation, the status quo ante was virtually restored through the agreement.
The decision to divert land to the SASB, which went way beyond what Mrs Sonali Kumar did vide GO 148-FST of 2005, was taken by the Azad-led government. Of course, there is no question of taking action against the politicians of the PDP and the Congress who comprised the Azad cabinet then.
The question that begs an answer is: If Mrs Sonali Kumar’s action of issuing GO 148-FST of 2005 was wrong, why it has not been set aside subsequently, till date? It is not clear whether the government plans to cancel this order now after issuing the warning to Mrs Kumar.the Principal Secretary to Government, Agriculture Production Department,
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