Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Nov 28: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed the Commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), G N Qasba, to report to the Court about the status of inquiry initiated by the SMC against its erring officials who have allowed gross violations of Srinagar Master Plan.
A Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court comprising Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magray directed the SMC Commissioner to file the status report of the inquiry initiated against erring officials by or before the next day of hearing.
The SMC has sealed 45 structures under Court orders in Srinagar city that had come up against the Master Plan violations and Court has been informed by the Advocate General Mohammad Ishaq Qadri that there are 3000 violations of the Master Plan.
The Court had held the officials of the SMC equally responsible for the violations and asked the SMC to initiate action against them. It felt that the violations would not have been possible without the active connivance of the SMC officials.
The Court also pulled up SMC counsel, Mir Firdous, for not issuing notices to the owner of the sealed buildings so that they can appeal it in the tribunal.
The SMC counsel informed the Court that so far notices have been issued to owners of 16 structures that were sealed.
The Court asked the SMC to do its duty as per law. “You are required to do your statutory duty. Why are you waiting for the Court orders”, the Court observed.
The Court directed the SMC to issue notices to the owners of the sealed buildings. “You can’t keep them sealed all the time”, observed the Court.
The SMC counsel informed the Court that the special tribunal has started process of hearing the appeals after issuing notices to the owners of the sealed structures.
The Court also directed the Enforcement Officer of the SMC, Hakim Aijaz Ali, to file his fresh property statement including the property registered in his spouse and children’s name, if he has any.
The direction was issued after the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar in his compliance report filed in response to earlier order of the Court, in which DC was directed to take over the property of CEO of SMC and hand it over to Tehsildar concerned, found the property statement in contrary to the spot report.
The DC in his compliance report had said that the details given by the CEO are in contrary to what has been found on the spot.
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