Despite lapse of over 4 yrs, Govt fails to finalize Kathua Master Plan

Deadline over, objections & suggestions yet to be disposed of
Even draft not available on websites of Town Planning, Distt
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 18: In a testimony of non-serious approach towards ensuring planned development of major towns, Government has failed to finalize the Kathua Master Plan the exercise for which was started over four years back by the Housing and Urban Development Department. The intensity of casual approach can be gauged from the fact that even draft is not available either on the website of Town Planning Organization or of District Kathua.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that about four and half years back an exercise was set into motion for having a Master Plan for Kathua town to ensure its planned development and check haphazard growth.
Accordingly, a draft was prepared by the Town Planning Organization (TPO) after a long drawn exercise and then it was put in the public domain as per the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Authority Act, 1976 for inviting objections and suggestions, which is a mandatory exercise before finalization of any Master Plan.
A number of suggestions and objections were received from the general public on the draft and thereafter for several months no further step was initiated by the Housing and Urban Development Department, sources said.
Finally, Vide Government Order No.339-HUD dated December 26, 2018, the then Financial Commissioner Housing and Urban Development Department K B Agarwal constituted a committee in terms of Rule-9 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Authority Rules to scrutinize the objections and suggestions received from various quarters and furnish recommendations for incorporation in the draft Master Plan of Kathua.
The committee headed by Deputy Commissioner Kathua and comprising of Chief Town Planner Jammu, Chief Architect Jammu and Chief Executive Officer Kathua Municipal Council had to complete this process within a period of one month—by January 26, 2019.
Astonishingly, this committee has not met even once what to talk of disposal of suggestions and objections and submission of report to the Housing and Urban Development Depart-ment, sources informed.
“The delay in finalization of the Master Plan is notwithstanding the fact that for its implementation the Housing and Urban Development Depart-ment vide SRO-407 and in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, 1970 had constituted Kathua Development Authority”, sources further informed.
As per SRO-407 the members of Kathua Development Authority will hold the office till September this year and whether the Master Plan will be in place for its implementation by then remains a million dollar question keeping in view the dilly-dallying approach towards finalization of the Master Plan.
The most astonishing aspect is that draft of the Master Plan is no more available either on the website of the Town Planning Organization or District Kathua. “District Kathua website must have the draft of the Master Plan”, said an officer of the Town Planning Organization while as a senior officer of the Kathua district administration said, “since preparation of Master Plan is strictly the domain of the Town Planning Organization it should have posted draft on its website”.
When contacted, Chief Executive Officer of Kathua Municipal Council Sanjeev Gandotra, who is Member Secretary of the committee having the mandate to dispose of the suggestions and objections, fanned ignorance about constitution of this committee, adding “all what I know is that process of obtaining comments on the draft was concluded long time back”.
However, Deputy Commissioner Kathua Rohit Khajuria, when contacted, admitted delay in disposal of objections and suggestions and said, “the focus of the administration was on holding elections and other important events as such time could not be spared for completion of the task assigned by the Housing and Urban Development Department”.
“We will try to conclude the process as early as possible and thereafter the final draft will be placed before the Housing and Urban Development Department for submission to the State Administrative Council for final approval”, he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that preparation of Master Plan of major towns in a time bound manner never received serious attention of the State administration despite the fact that there is no end to the haphazard growth.

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