* Total 69 buildings fall under HC’s directions
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 6: Implementing the directions of the State High Court, Reasi district administration today began the process of sealing illegally constructed commercial and residential buildings in the holy town of Katra and on the first day nine structures including a hotel of the Tourism Department were sealed amidst resistance from the general public. A complete bandh was also observed in the town and people took out rally in protest against the sealing. However, the exercise was carried out without use of force.
Reports said that two teams constituted by the district administration with the assistance of one company each of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) reached Katra town this morning to implement the directions of the State High Court. Additional Deputy Commissioner Reasi, Rajinder Singh Tara and senior police officers were heading the teams deployed for carrying out sealing exercise.
As soon as the teams led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Katra Development Authority, Rajinder Singh and Executive Officer, Municipal Committee Katra, Ravi Kumar started sealing exercise from the Main Bazar, large number of people gathered on the spot and put up some resistance leading to delay in start of the operation.
However, they were asked by the Additional Deputy Commissioner not to create obstructions in the implementation of the directions of the High Court. He also made it clear to the people that district administration cannot provide any sort of relief to them in view of the explicit directions of the court. However, resistance continued with people closing their business establishments and holding demonstration to lodge protest against the sealing operation.
When some people continued to prevent teams from carrying out sealing operations, the Magistrates deployed in the area issued orders for use of force over the protesters. However, before the police personnel could resort to action, the protesters dispersed and the sealing operation began.
In the main bazaar, the administration put seal on two hotels—one of the Tourism Department and another owned by Ashok Kumar. The Tourism Department hotel, which had come up in violation of the law, was nearing completion and was likely to be opened in near future. Ashok Kumar had constructed one floor of his hotel without obtaining proper permission from the concerned authorities and the administration only sealed the illegally constructed portion of the building.
After sealing these two hotels in main bazaar, the teams launched operation on Railway Road where people too resisted the move for sometime before dispersing fearing use of force, reports said, adding on Railway Road the administration sealed seven structures including some shops and shopping complexes owned by Harsh Jain and others.
According to the official sources, only nine structures could be sealed during the day long operation mainly due to resistance from the people. Moreover, before sealing the structures the teams prepared inventory of each and every perishable and non-perishable item in order to avoid any legal glitch at the later stage, they said, adding even photography and videography of the structures was carried out before putting seal on them.
Disclosing that a total of 68 structures—27 under the jurisdiction of Municipal Committee and 41 under the jurisdiction of Katra Development Authority fall under the purview of the High Court directions, sources said, “the sealing process will continue tomorrow in order to ensure 100% compliance of the directions”, adding “the administration will try its level best to seal all these structures before February 11, when the matter will come up for hearing before the High Court. The administration, as per the previous directions of the High Court, has to submit the status report on sealing before the listing of case for further hearing”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the owners of these illegal structures have failed to get any reprieve from the Supreme Court as well as High Court. While the Apex Court of the country had only granted temporary relief by way of status quo for two weeks, the High Court recently dismissed the review petitions with costs of Rs 10,000 on six petitioners.
In its directions dated December 31, 2013, Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Hasnain Massodi had directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu and Deputy Commissioner Reasi to seal all the illegally constructed buildings in the holy town of Katra.
The Division Bench has categorized the illegal structures as——commercial/ residential buildings, which have come up completely without permission of the local bodies like Municipal Committee or Development Authority; illegal constructions which have come up and violate the Master Plan; illegal constructions which have been raised on agricultural land without seeking permission to convert the use of the same for commercial/residential or other purpose and the proposed structures which have come up where permissions have been granted when the proceedings for acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act were in progress namely notification under Sections 4 and 6 had already been issued and the public utilities like by-lanes have been blocked.
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