PIL on damages caused by floods in Nikki Tawi area
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 22: Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul has sought personal appearance of Vice-Chairman JDA for her failure to file reply in the Public Interest Litigation highlighting havoc created by the flash floods in Nikki Tawi areas.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Rahul Raina, Supriya Chouhan, Mohd Zulkarnain Chowdhary, Irtiza Mushtaq Salaria and Muzzaffar Ali Shah for PIL whereas ASGI Vishal Sharma for Central Water Commission (CWC) and Deputy AG K D S Kotwal for PHE, I&FC Department, the Division Bench observed, “vide order dated March, 16, 2020 the JDA through its Vice-Chairman was impleaded as party respondent to respond to the affidavit filed by Central Water Commission wherein it was highlighted that because of the negligence of JDA a project with an estimated cost of Rs 375.732 crore plus Rs 31.962 crore was deleted from the list of appraisal by the Ministry of Jal Shakti but there is no appearance on behalf of JDA”.
Advocate Ahmed vehemently argued that Rohit Kansal, the then Principal Secretary, Planning Development and Monitoring Department was personally present before the Division Bench on March 16, 2020 and he had informed that World Bank Funded Project Report for Flood Mitigation and Comprehensive River Management Measures for Tawi basin is underway which is expected to be completed by June, 2020.
It was also informed by the Principal Secretary that based on the consultancy report, steps for mitigation of the floods will be evolved and undertaken by the concerned department.
As the deadline assured for submission of the project report has already expired and no such report has been placed on record, the Division Bench looking into the seriousness of the matter directed that the report with regard to this project be positively filed by Deputy AG K D S Kotwal before the next date of hearing.
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