Free land, amount for start of construction to be given
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 9: In order to provide much-needed relief to all those families, which have been affected due to acquisition of land for the expansion of Jammu airport, the Administrative Council (AC) headed by Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu will shortly approve Rehabilitation Plan by which free land and amount for start of construction will be given.
The acquisition proceedings for the land measuring 27 kanals and 2 marlas for the expansion of Jammu airport were started way back in 2003-04. The final award in the matter was made in the year 2008 and accordingly the Airport Authority of India (AAI) deposited Rs 5.32 crore with the District Collector, Jammu for acquisition of 27 kanals and 2 Marlas of land at Narwal Pain and Satwari.
A total of 61 families were occupying two separate patches of land in these areas and due to various court cases and failure of the authorities to carry out the rehabilitation of the families being affected, the handing over of the land was delayed. This also resulted into inordinate delay in the completion of the project.
In the recent past, the Revenue Department in consultation with the Deputy Commissioner Jammu prepared a Rehabilitation Plan for all the 61 affected families and placed the same before the Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyum for his approval, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“After the approval of the Chief Secretary the Rehabilitation Plan has been forwarded to the Finance Department for sanction and release of required funds”, sources said while disclosing that in the recent Committee of Secretaries (CoS) meeting the Chief Secretary directed the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department to pursue with the Finance Department for early submission of Rehabilitation Plan for affected families on account of expansion of Jammu airport to the Administrative Council.
“The Rehabilitation Plan is likely to be submitted to the Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu shortly for approval”, they informed, adding with the approval of Rehabilitation Plan all the 61 affected families will heave a sigh of relief.
According to the sources privy to the proposed Rehabilitation Plan, each affected family will be given 6 to 8 marlas of land in Sunjwa area of Jammu city outskirts. Moreover, each family will be given Rs 1.62 lakh as initiation amount for start of construction work.
“Since the area identified for the rehabilitation of affected families is the Government land not much financial implication is required and only allotment is to be made”, sources said, adding “the Finance Department has been asked to release funds for providing initiation amount for start of construction work and development of basic facilities like roads, power and water at the site of the rehabilitation”.
It is worthwhile to mention here that as part of rehabilitation proposal an amount of Rs 1.5 lakh per affected family for eight most economical weaker families was disbursed by the Deputy Commissioner Jammu Sushma Chauhan two days back.
This initiative was taken in collaboration with the Airport Authority of India to facilitate the affected families to procure the household articles for daily use. The affected families have already shown satisfaction for the efforts of Deputy Commissioner to come forward for mitigation of their sufferings.
When contacted, Principal Secretary to Government, Revenue Department Pawan Kotwal confirmed that Rehabilitation Plan for Jammu airport expansion affected families was under the consideration of the Finance Department and will shortly be placed before the Administrative Council for approval. He, however, preferred not to divulge details of the Rehabilitation Plan and said, “we have taken into consideration all the aspects while formulating the Rehabilitation Plan”.
Had efforts been made by the successive Governments to prepare Rehabilitation Plan for the affected families well in time the expansion of Jammu airport would have not seen inordinate delay, sources remarked.
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