Irregularities in Dal dwellers’ rehabilitation

How could even a part of the exercise in the name of preservation and protection of famous Dal Lake be sans irregularities in totality which draws a pessimist note in respect of how ”considerations ” rule the roost in discharging of official duties or exercising of official position by some officials in Jammu and Kashmir. Allegations of hanky – panky in plot assignments, allotting more plots than actually eligible for, sale in violation of assigned guidelines of rehabilitation of plots, rehabilitees after sale of allotted plot returning to Dal banks as encroachers and other charges are serious and smacking of breach of transparency, integrity and honesty. It is really volumes in silence describing a lot about the stinking system where almost in most of such cases in various departments and Government agencies, only after cognizance being taken by the courts and passing necessary and much required directives, remedial measures are taken.
In this connection, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir entrusted the job of looking into the irregularities indulged in by the officials of Jammu and Kashmir Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the process of rehabilitation and relocation of Dal Lake dwellers. A Committee of Experts, in this regard, had submitted its suggestions which were duly considered by the Court and a decision of utmost significance passed by it. We can now expect the ACB to go through the entire mechanism of the interplaying of different factors which led to commissioning of irregularities which besides other ways of the fallout, resulted in and caused severe delay in the rehabilitation and relocation process of Dal dwellers. Needless to add, the concerned Committee of Experts in a special note submitted before the Court had detailed the complaints and irregularities about the entire process and in the name of rehabilitation of the dwellers of the Lake and had suggested for referring the entire matter pertaining to LAWDA for fuller enquiry to the ACB.
It is intriguing, however, that no action has been taken against the persons who in spite of relocation have again come back to the lake and started encroaching it. Such violators should have been evicted and also legal action taken against them, which has been reiterated by the said Committee and mentioned in details in its report. In the name of saving the Dal , whatever efforts needed to be taken to show results on the ground are nowhere to be seen, instead additional and complicated issues have sprouted in the shape of the concerned insincere officials with doubtful integrity aborting the entire exercise as well as most of the dwellers ”rehabilitated” selling their plots and finding no other place to settle except to return to the choked and violated Dal to re-encroach its already shrunk and dried up banks. The climax of the entire drama is that these dwellers have been complaining , most probably, as an alibi and justification to sell for gains the allotted plots, that at new places of their relocation, they faced multiple problems and in the name of ”saving the Lake” they were ”uprooted”. However, assessment of plots is being undertaken by High Level Committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and allocation of number of plots to the said dwellers is being decided by the Committee which is expected to bring about some necessary transparency in the matter.
We reiterate that any scheme, development, public work, social measure and the like are unlikely to have desired results and benefits on the ground without a dedicated and committed officialdom and if graft, extraneous considerations, building assets and amassing wealth like deriding things are achieved through misusing official machinery and position at the cost of such schemes and developmental works, the vigilance radar of the Government must be active and in ”operational mode”. In other words, strict action must be taken against such officials starting with immediate suspension of their services and preparing charge sheet followed by an enquiry against them. It shall be in the fitness of things to probe the accounts and unaccounted wealth and assets of the officers of LAWDA disproportionate to known sources of their income over a period of 15 years .