Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 18: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar has expressed its deep anguish and displeasure over the allotment of a cattle pound situated at Gandhi Nagar by the Jammu Municipal Corporation in favour of former Joint Commissioner (Adm) of the Corporation R S Jamwal.
The Division Bench also took serious view of the allotment made in favour of a retired officer of the Jammu Municipal Corporation for the land/space earmarked for cattle pound and directed the Commissioner Jammu Municipal Corporation to file a comprehensive affidavit explaining as to how and on whose orders the cattle pound at Gandhi Nagar was closed and later allotted to the Joint Commissioner (Adm) Jammu Municipal Corporation.
These directions were passed in a Public Interest Litigation filed by an NGO (SAVE) through its Chairperson Devinder Kour Madaan alias Rumpy Madaan seeking closure of 59 illegal/ unregistered milk dairies running within the limits of Jammu Municipal Corporation and also for regulating the functioning of existing 57 number of registered dairies as per the norms and guidelines issued by JMC under Section 44(N) of Jammu Municipal Corporation Act, 2000.
When the PIL came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Rahul Raina, Suraj Singh and Supriya Chouhan appearing for the petitioner drew the attention of the Division Bench towards the amended reply filed by JMC wherein it was submitted that JMC has one cattle pound situated at Dogra Hall, Jammu and capacity of the cattle pound is to accommodate 70/80 animals at a time.
It was further submitted that all the “Gowshalas” running within and outside the limits of JMC have refused to adopt the animals due to non-availability of space and accordingly Deputy Commissioner, Jammu has been requested for identifying/providing land so that animals of the un-registered dairies are shifted till the time such unregistered dairies are regulated and managed as per the norms framed by JMC.
“The JMC has given a misleading statement that it has one cattle pound situated at Dogra Hall, Jammu when the fact remains there is one more cattle pound at Gandhi Nagar which has been illegally/ arbitrarily closed by JMC and allotted in favour of R S Jamwal, the then Joint Commissioner (Adm) Municipal Corporation Jammu”, Advocate Ahmed said and submitted a complete set of allotment documents.
After going through the documents, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed asked Advocate Sachin Gupta appearing for Jammu Municipal Corporation as to how the cattle pound at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu has been allotted for residential purpose to a senior officer of Municipal Corporation Jammu. The DB also expressed concern with regard to the rent agreement executed for 11 months between JMC and R S Jamwal with regard to the cattle pound.
The DB also put a query to Advocate Sachin Gupta as to how many registered and un-registered dairies are existing within the limits of JMC and the counsel for JMC Advocate Sachin Gupta submitted that there are 59 un-registered dairies and 57 registered dairies within JMC limits.
Upon this the Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed remarked in the open court, “it means 50:50”. He also expressed deep concern over the lackadaisical approach of JMC in not taking action against the unregistered dairies functioning within its limits.
Advocate Ahmed vociferously argued that there was no compliance of the norms by the dairy units and the Municipal Officers are also remiss in the performance of their duties.
After going through the norms framed by JMC, DB directed Commissioner JMC to take action as per the norms against the illegal diary units and licenses be issued to only those dairy units who conform to the norms.
The DB also directed him to file a comprehensive affidavit within four weeks about the action taken against un-registered dairies and also the action taken on the applications received by JMC from Dairy Units for grant of license. The Division Bench further directed the JMC to explore the possibilities of identifying new places for more cattle pounds in Jammu City.
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