Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 5: As the existing Master Plan for Pahalgam violates several legislations of the State, the Government has been compelled to rectify the discrepancies and a proposal vis-à-vis revision of the plan is being placed before the State Cabinet, which is meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on November 7, 2012 at 11 am.
Interestingly, the discrepancies ridden Master Plan for one of the most important tourist destinations of the State was prepared for a period of 20 years (2005 to 2025) and detection of the same on the intervention of State High Court puts a question mark on the vision and credibility of those officers, who were entrusted with this major responsibility.
The existing Master Plan has been found in violation of Forest Act, Wildlife Act, Environmental, Ecological and Topographical Considerations and based on inadequate map data by an expert committee constituted by the High Court itself. The Committee pointed out that some green areas have been shown as residential areas and vice-versa and the local residents have resentment about the irregularities.
The Master Plan for Pahalgam was framed in the year 2006. However, the same was challenged in the High Court in two different Public Interest Litigations (PILs) on the ground that the Plan for 2005-2025 was against the interest of the inhabitants of Pahalgam and designed by the respondents for their personal vested interests, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
The High Court passed different orders from time to time in the case and also directed to constitute a committee to look into the matter and submit compliance report. On September 17, 2012, the High Court granted three months time to the State to revise the Master Plan based on the findings of the Expert Committee and Environment Impact Assessment report prepared by the Centre of Research for Development, University of Kashmir, sources said.
The EIA has also pointed out major discrepancies in the Master Plan regarding the area, land use, STPs etc. “The built up areas have been shown as agriculture, forest, forest/river front and forest cover has been shown as agriculture and pasture as built-up”, the EIA has further pointed out.
Now, on the directions of the High Court, the Government has decided to revise the Master Plan in order to rectify the discrepancies and have a provision for planning for the areas to be included in the Pahalgam Development Authority.
“As per the proposal being placed before the Cabinet, the Tourism Secretary, Atal Duloo is seeking sanction to the revision of Master Plan in terms of directions of High Court as well as on the basis of suggestions/recommendations made in EIA”, sources said.
The Cabinet will also accord approval to the construction of alternate double lane bridge near the existing Abdullah bridge in Rajouri under Special Task Force Programme. “This has been a persistent public demand in view of upgradation of existing roads”, sources said, adding “the bridge would be constructed at a cost of Rs 24.65 crore within a period of three working seasons”.
A team of Special Task Force for Jammu and Ladakh regions constituted by the Union Government had examined the demand/ proposal and approved in principle the construction of bridge to ease huge traffic congestion on existing single lane bridge.
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