Slackness of officers’ panels leads to chaotic situation
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 31: In a major blot on the performance of PDP-BJP Government, the much touted policy to deal with unauthorized constructions in twin capital cities and holy town of Katra has expired even before its implementation. In this way, the four years long exercise has finally turned out to be damp squib due to absolute slackness on the part of Housing and Urban Development Department and Empowered Committees headed by Divisional Commissioners.
The State High Court in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Mujeeb Andrabi Versus State of J&K had directed the State Government to come up with a policy in view of a very large number of Master Plan/Building Byelaws violations in the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar and holy town of Katra.
Accordingly, a High Level Committee was constituted by the Government and subsequently on its recommendations, the J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 was enacted so that a comprehensive policy can be formulated to tackle the issue of these violations.
Thereafter, vide Government Order No.230-HUD dated August 5, 2014 an expert committee was constituted to scrutinize all Master Plan violations/Building Byelaws violations and come up with a policy to deal with the menace of unauthorized constructions in both the capital cities as well as in Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi pilgrimage.
After dilly-dallying approach, the policy was finally approved by the State Cabinet vide Decision No.53/4/2017 dated April 28, 2017. However, notification of policy was delayed for several months due to known reasons.
It was only on September 20, 2017 that the policy was notified by the Housing and Urban Development Department vide SRO-391 in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 to bring illegal and unauthorized constructions and land use or building use conversions into planning framework and to facilitate the implementation of Master Plans.
It was stated in the SRO-391 that policy will be applicable for a period of one year-from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 for the local areas of Srinagar, Jammu and Katra. There was inbuilt flaw in the notification as policy was given effect from April 1, 2017 despite the fact that SRO-391 explaining its provisions was issued only on September 20, 2017.
Due to this confusion prevailed not only at the level of public but also among the officers who were supposed to implement the much-hyped decision of the Government, sources told EXCELSIOR, adding the dilly-dallying approach in the implementation of the policy continued till December last year when a writ petition was filed in the High Court challenging certain provisions of the policy.
In the petition titled Bimla Devi Versus State of J&K and Others, it was submitted that Section 3 of the J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 doesn’t authorize the respondents to compound the offences with regard to Master Plan violations. However, the respondents have issued SRO-391 dated September 20, 2017 which even empowers the Empowered Committees to compound the violations with regard to Master Plan as such the notification was in contravention of Section 3 of the Act.
In view of the submissions made in the petition and in the facts of the case, High Court vide order dated December 22, 2017 issued directions against passing any final order with regard to compounding of offences of violations of Master Plan and sought Government response to the petition. In the month of January 2018, the High Court, on the request of the Government, granted time for compliance of order dated December 22, 2017 and since then there is no further development from the judicial side.
However, the much touted policy has expired today even before its implementation as in SRO-391 its applicability was shown only up to March 31, 2018. “Now confusion is prevailing in the Housing and Urban Development Department as on one side period of applicability of policy is over and on the other side there is no further direction from the High Court”, sources said.
“In this way, four years long exercise aimed at dealing with the menace of illegal constructions in Jammu, Srinagar and Katra has turned out to be damp squib and slackness of the Housing and Urban Development Department in timely issuing SRO and then of Empowered Committees headed by Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioner Reasi has led to the present chaotic situation”, sources said.
Due to this development, there will be no action against 4131 violations in Jammu, 5500 in Srinagar and 58 in Katra, sources said, adding “the prevailing situation will also create impediments in the implementation of new Master Plans prepared for the capital cities and Katra”.
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