Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Feb 27: In order to protect the water bodies from encroachments and bring back the original width of river Jhelum, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed the Government to initiate the drive of removing all encroachments from banks of river Jhelum within one week.
The Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice MH Attar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey directed the authorities to initiate the drive of removing encroachments from the banks of river Jhelum within a week’s time and complete such process within a period of four weeks in the first instance.
“The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir with the active assistance of Chief Engineer, I&FC and concerned Deputy Commissioners and Superintendent of Police shall within one week from the date of receipt of this order initiate a drive for removing all the encroachments from the banks of river Jhelum”, directed the bench.
Court constituted a committee in this regard which is to be headed by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and concerned DCs and SSPs shall be the members of this committee.
“A committee headed by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir is constituted with the Chief Engineer, I&FC and Deputy Commissioners of Anantnag, Pulwama, Srinagar, Bandipora and Baramulla districts as its members”, DB said, adding “besides this, the SSPs of these districts shall also be the members of committee”.
Court directed the committee to ensure that original width of river Jhelum is restored and encroachments whatever removed without any ‘give and take’ negotiation.
DB observed that this is a noble purpose and in order to protect the water bodies in larger interest, is pursuing this case with the benign hope that the ‘future generations do not suffer because of extinction of these water bodies’.
Not satisfying with the work of CE I&FC and other authorities for removing the encroachments from all water bodies, DB observed “desired results have not been achieved till date” and sought report from CE indicating therein as to how and in which manner the encroachments are being removed from other water bodies falling within his jurisdiction.
Court directed the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar to ensure encroachments are removed from the Padshahi Canal in the manner it is directed by the court in terms of previous orders and sought report of compliance before the next date of hearing.
Court has been apprised that so far I&FC department has removed 233 boundary walls, 85 pucca structures, 206 Kucha structures and 1.26 lakh trees from the banks of rivers and other canals.
With regard to restoring the original width of the river Jhelum as was directed by the court, CE in his status report says that information has been received from all the concerned DCs and to this effect the concerned Executive Engineers have been directed to engage their concerned revenue staff to identify the boundaries of river Jhelum and initiate the steps to retrieve the encroached portion of river.
With regard to importance of river Jhelum, court observed “As already noticed in the earlier orders river Jhelum, one of the ancient river and lifeline of Kashmir, is facing extinction because of the greed of some people. Steps have to be taken to restore river Jhelum to its original position and the glory which is attached to it has to be brought back”.
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