Many people desirous of constructing their dwellings, buildings and other constructions have been ‘managing’ such constructions without usually applying for and obtaining valid building permission and later even getting vital service connections like those of power and water also without any questions. In most of the cases, underhand means have been adopted to get away with the violations or obtaining no building permission and then ‘regularised’ or ‘condoned’ by paying a paltry fine. Jammu Municipal Corporation and Jammu Development Authority, otherwise, supposed to be the watchdogs to the extent of being even eavesdroppers of knowing where such violations were going to take place or had just started and to strictly prevent that, it has been observed, have been found looking to the other side. Much needs not to be told about that as the reasons thereof and the causes even are fairly known. Since such constructions are largely unplanned, they contribute towards host of other problems that usually are manifest in unplanned, unauthorised and crowded colonies. Since Jammu Master Plan of 2017 is sought to be implemented with all the seriousness it required, any parallel move that of raising buildings without proper authorisation and permission from the concerned authorities would tantamount to frustrate the overall aim of the Master Plan to have a well planned and rather ‘orderly’ city and adjoining urban areas. To obliterate any such move, it has been decided, now, to connect providing of vital services on the strength of and with the authorised building construction plan only. In other words, no one without a valid permission to raise construction, would be entitled to get power and water connections from the concerned departments. Now, a copy of the sanctioned building permission granted under J&K Control of Building Operation Act and J&K Metropolitan Regional Development Authorities Act 2018 has to be submitted to the concerned departments before their sanctioning water and power connections to a desirous citizen.
Since power and water are two such vital requirements that have no substitute, it would leave little scope for anyone to bypass the cardinal prerequisite of applying for and getting a valid building permission which during and after construction shall be subjected to the verification of compliance of the terms of the sanction and whether the construction was carried on strictly according to the actual building plan. This decision taken by the administration is commendable and needs to be implemented strictly. At the same time, inordinate delays caused in sanctioning a building plan should be avoided as it has been observed that for months together such permissions are withheld and that leads to adopting the other short course. That all breeds all types of violations of construction rules and pose dangers too when some structures are raised contrary to technical and engineering principles and on plots with narrow lanes and approaches. Delays breed corruption and allowing corrupt practices, which is true of the manner provisions of the much hyped Jammu Master Plan are blatantly violated which need to be seriously looked into. Moreover, the watchdogs whose duty is to see the Plan being not violated are perhaps supervising the violations.
No loans, obviously, can be raised from any bank whatsoever for construction of residential house, commercial structure or whatever be the case, unless the building plan was duly authorised and sanctioned by the competent Municipal Authorities, Jammu Development Authority and any such institution legally empowered to do so. Block Development Officers had no legal jurisdiction to issue NOCs or any building permissions in the urban areas of Jammu and such practices, if any, reveal that there was mess ruling the system more than an order and semblance. Managing to obtain superfluous, unrelated and fake permission letters by some encroachers and violators, again means that there was no system of visiting the areas by the concerned dedicated inspecting teams where constructions were going on in an unauthorised way. Housing and Urban Development Department overseeing the functioning of the Jammu Municipal Corporation and Jammu Development Authority having issued slew of directions for compliance of and strictly adhering to the provisions of the Jammu Master Plan must ensure that no violations took place and if need be put on the vigilance radar some ”insiders” who encourage and facilitate violations.
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