Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, July 1: Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) under the influence of a local politician is proposing ‘auction’ of prime land worth Rs 100 crore at throw away prices for the construction of chain of hotels in City centre.
Vice Chairman of the SDA, Shafaat Noor Barlas, in a letter written to Principal Secretary Finance early this year has proposed the auction of 34.09 kanals of SDA land for construction of two hotels of five star and three star ratings and also auction of 9 kanals of land.
The land is located near the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand on M A Road, Old SRTC Yard. As per contents of the letter, the land was meant for construction of mini-Convention Centre/Office complex as part of Sangarmaal Shopping Mall -II but a local politician is trying to get the land allotted to a hotelier for construction of chain of hotels.
Sources said that earlier the SDA had planned to allot the land to the hotelier directly to the politician, who himself is hotelier, as a silent partner. However, due to strong resentment by the officers of the SDA, whose parent department is SDA, the allotment word was changed to auction by the VC. Sources said the VC wanted to involve the SDA officers in the process of putting forward the proposal but they refused to be part of it.
While describing the land details of Sangarmaal complex under the physical possession of the SDA, the letter reveals: “Area under Sangarmaal Phase-I, 19 kanals; Open land behind Module-A, 34.08 Kanals and Land under SDA stores, 9 kanals.”
However, the 9 kanals SDA store land was last year occupied by some taxi drivers backed by the local politician. A senior SDA official said that police refused to lodge an FIR against the encroachers who even damaged the Government property. The SDA officials had to move to court to get the FIR registered. The official said that due to political interference the administration and police didn’t help the SDA to vacate the land and it is still in the possession of taxi drivers.
Earlier famous Pistanji building, the lessee of which had expired was given on lessee to a businessman in early 2000s. The court case between the businessman, who had purchased the building from former lessee, and SDA was in Supreme Court but then Principal Secretary to Chief Minister wrote a letter to SDA VC asking him to withdraw the case. The former Union Minister, Kapil Sibal was counsel for the SDA and the case was almost won by the SDA when they withdrew it under the influence of politico-bureaucratic-businessmen nexus.
The employees of the SDA have expressed strong resentment against grabbing of the SDA propriety by Politician-Bureaucrat-businessmen nexus. They said if the SDA property is sold like this, SDA may one day become bankrupt.
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