Officers asked to prepare layouts, site plans unaware of order
Slackness prevails even after numerous directions from HC
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 16: There is no end to the slackness in carrying out much-needed demarcation of huge chunk of Jammu Development Authority’s land despite numerous directions from the State High Court during the past over two and half years as one more deadline is over but exercise is yet to be completed.
Moreover, a team of officers of the Jammu Development Authority constituted to prepare layouts and site plans of all vacant lands and plots has expressed complete ignorance about any such order thereby establishing that protection of its assets has remained least priority for the Authority.
In the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) based on the exclusive news-item of EXCELSIOR highlighting inordinate delay in proper demarcation of huge chunk of land transferred to the Jammu Development Authority in Jammu and Samba districts several years back, the State High Court started issuing directions for prompt action by all the concerned authorities in the year 2017.
On May 23, 2017, the Division Bench of the State High Court explicitly directed the Revenue authorities of Jammu and Samba districts as well as Jammu Development Authority to prepare action plan for demarcation of land in a time bound manner. They were also directed to identify specific teams for carrying out this vital but much delayed exercise.
“Though the concerned authorities started acting on the directions of the highest court of the State albeit after repeated hammering yet the demarcation exercise has not reached the logical conclusion during the past over two and half years mainly because of slackness on the part of the field functionaries of the Revenue Department as well as Jammu Development Authority”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
As far as Jammu district is concerned, the Deputy Commissioner Ramesh Kumar convened numerous meetings during the past few months and passed directions to the field functionaries for completion of exercise without any further delay. On June 17, 2019 he set a deadline of June 30, 2019 for the completion of exercise with the direction to the concerned Tehsildars of Revenue Department to handover the demarcated land to the JDA along with revenue papers within this timeline.
However, the field functionaries of the Revenue Department and JDA have failed to meet the deadline and this has compelled the Deputy Commissioner to extend the timeline till July 31, 2019 for complete demarcation of left-over JDA land, sources said, adding “two and half years was sufficient time to complete the demarcation of land but the process is getting delayed inordinately due to the slackness on the part of the concerned authorities”.
“Unless demarcation is completed and relevant revenue papers are handed over to the Jammu Development Authority huge chunk of land will remain prone to the encroachments”, sources further said.
What to talk of field functionaries of the Revenue Department even the concerned authorities of the Jammu Development Authority are also not showing serious interest in protecting the assets of the Authority. This can be gauged from the inaction on the directions issued in the month of January this year.
Vide Order No.02 dated January 3, 2019, the Secretary Jammu Development Authority Rakesh Kumar Gupta constituted a team of officials to prepare detailed layouts/site plans of the JDA lands and plots in various areas of Jammu and Samba districts for putting the same to proper use as per the provisions of Jammu Master Plan-2032.
The team headed by Raman Sharma, Incharge Senior Town Planner and Senior Architect JDA and comprised of Tehsildar concerned and Executive Engineer concerned was directed to prioritize the preparation of layouts/site plans in consultation with the Vice-Chairman of Jammu Development Authority and complete the entire exercise by February 15, 2019 positively.
What to talk of completion of exercise as per the order, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, the team members, when contacted, expressed complete ignorance about any such order and tried to put ball in each other’s court.
“I am not aware of any such order…..I think officials in other sections might have been given this responsibility”, said head of the team Raman Sharma when contacted.
“How JDA can protect its assets with such a non-serious approach remains a million dollar question”, sources said, adding “it seems that vital exercise of preparation of layouts and site plans of vacant JDA lands and plots was confined to merely issuance of official order”.
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