8/4/2015
Nitesh Sangral
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 3: Three persons, including a
KAS officer, have encroached upon a deep drain (nallah) in Sarwal area of Jammu
and raised construction over it, with the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC)
choosing to ignore the issue.
Under the J&K Water Resources Act, all
water bodies including nallah (big drain) are property of the state. And if
anyone encroaches upon the water resources, legal action would be taken against
him/her under the law. But despite encroachment of the nallah in Sarwal, no one
is taking action against the violators who happen to be influential people.
While talking to Early Times, a complainant
Sanjay Gupta said that despite a PIL filed in the High Court, the KAS officer
was raising construction over the nallah. Gupta said he also filed a complaint
in the Vigilance Organization against Commissioner of JMC, ex-Joint
Commissioner Kapil Sharma, Khalafwarzi Officer Rajesh Gupta and Anil Gupta for
not taking any action against the encroachers. "But nothing has been done
by the Vigilance too as the violator is a KAS officer," Gupta said.
"When the matter was taken with
then Commissioner of JMC Kiran Wattal in 2014, he visited the location with
officials of the JMC and found that it was violation of norms and immediately
issued order for demolition. The Commissioner then left for Delhi. In his
absence, the KAS officer used his links with the higher officials and succeeded
in averting any action against him," Gupta said.
He said he had filed an RTI in the JMC as
well. "In the reply it is clearly mentioned that the KAS officer didn't
take building permission from JMC. How he can start work without compulsory
permission from JMC and how did JMC officials allow him to raise building
without permission? It proves that KAS officer misused his position,"
Gupta said.
"Being a KAS officer, no action could
be taken against him and others who encroached the drain at Sarwal colony and
the authority ignored its own rules and regulations and turned blind eye to the
entire matter," he alleged.
When contacted, JMC Commissioner Soujanya
Kumar Sharma said the KAS officer had submitted an affidavit in the corporation
in which he had clearly mentioned that he would not be using the land for commercial
activities. When asked if it's not violation of the laws, Sharma said "no".
Interestingly, ex-commissioner of the JMC
had directed his officials to demolition the structure at the nallah.
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