Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 26: Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Virender Singh and Justice Tashi Rabstan today passed numerous directions in a Public Interest Litigation regarding delay in completion of work on artificial lake and Mubarakh Mandi gandola projects.
When the PIL filed by Inderjeet Khajuria, President All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association came up for hearing, Senior Advocate B S Slathia appearing for the PIL submitted that artificial lake is a centrally sponsored project under 13th Finance Commission and out of Rs 70 crore, only Rs 51.10 crore have been released to the executing agency as per the information collected by the petitioner from the Executive Engineer Division-II.
“The entire process has stopped on account of non-availability of the funds and Commissioner Secretary Irrigation, Flood Control and PHE Department should be directed to apprise the court as to what is standing in way for releasing the funds to the executing agency”, he submitted.
After hearing Senior Advocate Slathia along with Advocates Bhanu Singh Salathia and Meenakshi Salathia, DB directed Commissioner Secretary Irrigation, Flood Control and PHE to submit his compliance report in this regard.
The counsel for the PIL further drew the attention of Division Bench towards gandola Project from Mubarakh Mandi to Bhau Fort and said, “till date the work on the project has not been started”.
On this, DB directed Commissioner Secretary Tourism to apprise the court in this regard by filing his personal affidavit.
The attention of Court was also drawn towards inaction on the part of Commissioner JMC and VC JDA in removing garbage thrown on one side of river Tawi. The counsel for the petitioner also submitted certain pictures in this regard.
Accordingly, Division Bench directed Commissioner JMC and VC JDA to file their response apprising the Court as to what steps have been taken by them till date for removing garbage thrown on one side of river Tawi.
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