Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 24: With authorities at the helm of affairs totally sleeping over the issue, the encroachment of land belonging to Jammu Development Authority (JDA) near SOS Village and Revenue Complex at Gole Gujral goes unabated.
According to sources, the failure of Government and concerned authorities to act against the land grabbers and vacate the Government land from their possession, has emboldened them to such an extent that they have now started constructing the pucca houses not only on the Government land but also by grabbing the portion of road linking the area to other parts of the Jammu city.
Sensing the gravity of the situation with increasing public resentment against the encroachments on its land, Vice Chairman JDA Satish Nehru has directed the concerned authorities of his organization to file an FIR against the land grabbers to get the encroachments removed. Confirming this, Director land JDA Jitender Singh told Excelsior that VC has issued directives to file an FIR in concerned Police Station against the land grabbing and “we will follow the direction”.
The land encroachment took place for years together under the very nose of the authorities, sources said, adding from last some time land encroachers have even started constructing the concrete houses on the JDA land by annexing a portion of the service road leading from the area and linking the Akhnoor road to the newly constructed Tawi bridge in Bhagwati Nagar.
The stoic silence maintained by the authorities over the issue has become a cause of concern for the people residing in the surrounding colonies who are up in arms against the Government for turning the area into a slum by encouraging the land encroachment, sources said.
Sources said over 400 kanals of the land in the area were meant for construction of a colony for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of society way back in 2007 and JDA had issued a notification in this regard on April 19, 2007. The JDA had earmarked 1150 plots on the land for which it had invited applications from prospective buyers belonging to economically weaker sections of the society and intending to get the plots allotted in the area, sources added.
Sources said the applicants were asked to submit their application forms along with the fee by JDA but to their surprise the plots were never allotted to the applicants later and some of them when approached the authorities of the organization they showed inability to allot the plots to them or refunding their application fee.
Sources said that the area has been fully demarcated in JDA site plan and maps showing the plots but on ground no plot exists as entire land has been encroached upon by the land grabbers. The people living in the surrounding areas have approached the JDA seeking an intervention and restoration of the land to save the area from the increasing pollution of cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goat as it has become a breeding place for mosquitoes. They apprehend spread of epidemic like Dingo and Malaria if the area is not freed from the land encroachers and proper sanitation is maintained there.
Earlier JDA had tried to remove the encroachments in the area few years back but it resulted into a ding dong battle between police and the land grabbers. Later the authorities bowing to political pressure left the idea and gave a free hand to land grabbers in encroaching the entire land, sources said. The local people termed the Government’s move a half hearted approach saying that they never meant to remove the encroachments and restore the land to its original status.
Sources said one Khem Raj who had paid Rs 15,000 as application fee for a plot measuring 25×50 in the colony was refunded the amount later as the authorities failed to give possession of the plot to him. There were many more applicants whose fee was refunded by the organization later.
The situation is so grave in the area and the land encroachers have been embolden to such an extent that each one has grabbed four to five kanals of land at his will as there is no check from Government side.
Terming the encroachment of land as lawlessness the people in surrounding colonies said that this has encouraged the Myanmar refugees also who have also grabbed a portion of private land in the colony adding to the woes of the people residing there.
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