Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 27: Chairman Jammu & Kashmir RTI Movement Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat has urged upon Government to destroy all the unexploded artillery shells in Tosmaidan meadow.
He said that these live shells are posing a great threat to the local population and visiting tourists.
In a statement issued here, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat said that blast in Tosmaidan on Tuesday was an ample proof that live shells are still lying scattered there.
“RTI Movement expresses sympathy with the family of Mohammad Asif Wani, a class 9th student from Beeru area who got seriously injured in a blast on Tuesday in Tosmaidan,” the statement read.
It added that in August 2018 another man died of a similar blast and three other persons were injured. The RTI Movement said that on one other hand the government in 2015 claimed that meadow was cleared of all the live shells as Army conducted operation Fallah in the area.
“We filed a petition in National Green Tribunal (NGT) and appealed for sanitizing the area but the Govt took no concrete steps and we already lost one precious life in 2018 and now Asif is critical. We appeal LG G C Murmu and Advisor Baseer Khan to intervene” the RTI Movement demanded.
Pertinently, RTI movement, the statement said, had filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) about the presence of live shells in Tosmaidan.
After hearing the petition NGT had directed the Ministry of Defence to ensure that the meadow was clean before August 10, 2016. “Unfortunately this order was not at all respected and not a single team visited Tosmaidan until the whole meadow became inaccessible due to 2016 snowfall.
RTI movement demanded that all the victims of Tosmaidan-dead as well as injured-should be adequately compensated and rehabilitated as well.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel