*58 violations of Ribbon Development Act too surface
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 23: In what could be termed as onslaught on the green gold and blot on the planned development of main tourist resort of Jammu region, encroachments on over 130 kanals of forest and Patnitop Development Authority (PDA) land has been detected by the Udhampur district administration besides 58 violations of the Jammu and Kashmir Ribbon Development Act on the road leading to this picturesque spot.
The major violators are the prominent hoteliers, who blatantly abused the law for their own benefits, and action is likely against them as administration has written to both Roads and Building and Forest Departments for removal of encroachments in a time-bound manner.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that the then Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, while chairing meeting of Tourism Development Authorities last year, had expressed serious concern over growing encroachments in the tourist spots.
He had specifically underlined the need for identification and removal of encroachments in Patnitop and asked the district administration to carry out necessary exercise in this regard as early as possible.
Accordingly, the Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary had assigned the task to the Additional Deputy Commissioner in the month of July last year. The Additional Deputy Commissioner with the assistance of Assistant Commissioner Revenue Udhampur and officers and officials of the Forest Department carried out detailed exercise, which includes spot visits.
The administration has now detected large scale encroachments on the forest as well as Patnitop Development Authority land, sources said while disclosing that a total of 40 kanals of forest land and 89 kanals of PDA land has been encroached upon by the hoteliers. A large number of hotels have encroached 10 to 20 feet of the adjoining forest area in order to create parking or other facilities illegally.
According to the sources privy to the list of encroachers, one Lakshman, son of Meena Singh has encroached upon 20 kanals of land, Aman Singh (9 kanals), Ajit Singh, son of Karan Singh (one kanal), Shiv Nath, Hem Raj, Man Singh, Prem Nath, Tara Chand and Swaran Chand (five marla each). Similarly, Sanjay Enterprises has encroached upon 10 marlas of land, Brij Mohan (one kanal), Ramesh Chander (15 marla), Hotel Green Top (15 marla), Hotel Patnitop Heights (20 feet), Hotel Trinetar (5 marla) and Hotel Green Fields (four marla).
They informed that 46 encroachers have encroached upon 89 kanals of PDA land, which was transferred to the Development Authority by the Forest Department several years back. “These encroachments have taken place over a period of time but all the concerned authorities remained mute spectator instead of preventing onslaught on the forests”, sources added.
Moreover, district administration has detected 58 encroachments along the road leading to the picturesque tourist resort in blatant violation of Jammu and Kashmir Ribbon Development Act, sources further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that J&K Ribbon Development Act applies to the roads maintained by the Roads and Buildings Department of the State. Under this Act, width of the internal roads has been specified and Chief Engineers of R&B are the competent authority to see that there is no violation of the Act.
According to the sources, the district administration Udhampur vide communication No.ACRU/ SO/222-25 dated May 4, 2016 has asked the Conservator of Forest to remove encroachments from the 40 kanals of forest land in Patnitop area.
“Find enclosed the list of encroachers furnished by the Forest Range Officer to this office wherein encroachments have been shown over 40 kanals of forest land in villages of Karlah and Pachote etc in Patnitop-Kud area”, reads the communication, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
Even the Roads and Buildings Department has been asked to remove 50 encroachments from the alignment of the roads as there is violation of Ribbon Development Act, sources said.
Stating that action is likely shortly, sources said that even Minister for Forest, Ch Lal Singh during his recent visit to the area had directed the Forest and Revenue officers for removal of encroachments from Patnitop.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary confirmed that Forest and R&B Departments have been asked for removal of encroachments identified by the district administration during a detailed exercise spread over several months.
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