SMC facilitates illegal constructions

While people whose houses were damaged or collapsed in last year’s floods are finding it hard to get building permissions, there is a boom in construction of malls and other commercial buildings coming up illegally in residential areas. Hundreds of buildings including shops and malls are coming up in areas worst hit by floods like Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Gogji Bagh, Kursu, Wazirbagh and Karan Nagar the city center of Lal Chowk in violation of norms.
Adding grist to the already burning mill, the construction mafia is encroaching upon the land of the flood-hit people.
Locals from these flood-hit areas have been making repeated pleas to the authorities to stop this construction boom but their pleas have fallen to deaf ears.
Mehjabeen Bano, a resident of Raj Bagh, said their areas had been turned into a concrete jungle and the construction mafia was working overtime encroaching the roads, lanes, by-lanes and properties of flood-hit people.
Bano said flood-hit people were perplexed to see the construction mafia getting permission from Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC).
Most of the 75,000 houses that were damaged in last year’s deluge in Srinagar are from these areas.
SMC has so far given permission for the construction of around 1100 houses while 5000 houses collapsed in Srinagar city in last year’s floods.
In September last year, Kashmir was hit by one of the worst floods in a century in which at least 282 people died while property worth trillions of rupees was damaged.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Lone said the government had made a special policy for giving building permission to the flood-affected people.
However, he said if some people were managing to get the building permission for carrying illegal constructions, the issue was in SMC’s domain.
The former DC Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Shah had last year ordered an inquiry into the allegations that illegal constructions were coming up in Srinagar after the floods.
Niyaz Ahmad, a resident of Gogji Bagh, said the ward officers in the flood-hit areas were seeking Rs 50,000 from the affected people for granting them building permission.
He said on the contrary, the construction mafia operating in the city was able to get permission for massive buildings and malls.
“My house was severely damaged in floods and I am planning to reconstruct it but our ward officer is demanding Rs 50,000 from us for the building permission,” he said.
The constructions in the flood-affected areas are also coming up in complete violation of Srinagar Master Plan guidelines.
Commissioner SMC, Ghulam Nabi Qasba said if any SMC ward officer is demanding bribe for issuing building permissions, people should bring it to the notice of the authorities.
“We have set up a Helpline No 474499 and if anyone has to file any complaint against any SMC official, they should not hesitate and identify them and bring it to our notice,” Qasba said.
He said the government had given a facility to the people for getting building permissions without paying anything and most of the flood-affected people had taken benefit of this policy.
“It is true that some people are trying to ignore the facts and are submitting false affadavits,” Qasba said. “We have so far rejected 400 applications.”
The SMC Commissioner said people can even lodge their complaints through email at commissioner@smcsite.org
“The walls near the foot bridge on the Bund, shops at Abi Guzar had fell and this is why SMC allowed them to rebuild,” he said. “If anyone has violated the norms, people should come forward and register complaints.”
Qasba said SMC would soon start a process like filing complaints like filing FIRs.
“A register will be kept in every ward and everyone can register complaints,” he said. “We will proceed and take action against them as we have zero tolerance against such cases.”