Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 4: High Court has directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to file a status report on maintaining and preservation of parks and gardens and removal of encroachments and unauthorized construction from them.
The Division Bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal and Justice Mohan Lal has sought a status report from the Divisional Commissioner Jammu by or before next date of hearing after the Government counsel informed the court that the status report from Divisional Commissioner has been received and the same shall be filed before the court.
The Divisional Commissioner as per court direction has to indicate the follow up action taken so far for the preservation of parks and gardens in Jammu division.
The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has already submitted the report and directed all concerned Departments to submit the status report to his office for its onward submission before the High Court.
However, the Directorate of Floriculture, Srinagar Municipal Corporation and Srinagar Development Authority have been directed to submit the requisite report before the High Court directly after proper vetting by the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.
All the stakeholders and concerned departments were directed to submit the physical and financial progress of the parks for the financial year 2022-23 under their possession and maintenance within a weeks’ time positively.
“The concerned departments shall erect ramps on the entry points of all the parks so as to ensure an easy access for the specially abled persons”, reads the report of Div Com Kashmir.
The respondent-authorities are also directed that the Committee constituted by the Government under the Chairmanship of Director Floriculture shall conduct the meeting periodically and shall submit quarterly ATR to the authorities within time as well.
The High Court had directed for taking effective steps for removal of encroachments and unauthorized constructions from all the parks and green spaces and submitting reports with regard to the progress of the work of Divisional Level Committees (DLC) of Jammu and Srinagar for preparing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for mapping of parks and gardens in both cities.
The Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu in their status reports had earlier submitted that in alignment with the mandate of 74 constitutional Amendment Act issued by the Government wherein parks measuring less than 10 kanals of land (240 parks) stretched over an area of 756 Kanals of land along with the permanent officers and officials were transferred to the respective Urban Local Bodies.
Court was informed that the boundary walls of all parks are seen through with whip link, chains or reeling fences and almost all the parks and gardens of department of floriculture, Kashmir and Jammu are fenced by heritage stone brick walls.
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