Despite expansion of Jammu in the last 25 years and influx of lakhs of people who settled in the city since 1990, the government has failed to develop any residential colonies while private developers have taken much of the housing business.
The rapid expansion of unplanned colonies had also led to severe strain on the infrastructure giving rise to several urban problems but lack of policy and vision has forced the urban development department to take backstage.
The Housing and Urban Development Department has not developed any colony in the last two decades however, the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) has started working on four colonies at Roop Nagar, Gole Gujral, Birpur and Kot Bhalwal last year, which are still in progress.
The population of the city has increased manifold in the last two decades, due to migration because of militancy, particularly in Kashmir, from where both Kashmiri Pandits and Muslim had migrated to Jammu and got settled here.
In addition to, there has been huge influx of people from hilly districts of the Jammu region to Jammu city in search of better education and job opportunities.
Taking advantage of the reluctant attitude of the authorities, private builders have developed dozens of colonies, and some have got registered with the authorities.
Ironically, the housing colonies developed by the state government department for purely residential purpose have been converted into commercial hubs of the city and people are shifting their residential accommodation to private colonies.
“All residential colonies developed by the JDA or the housing board till date have been converted into commercial hubs of the city, whether it is Gandhi Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Trikuta Nagar or Janipur and Roop Nagar. People have converted their houses into big or small showrooms and shops and most of them have shifted their residence to the outskirts of the city,” a housing expert in Jammu notes.
According to sources, thousands of kanals of agricultural and forest land in outskirts of the Jammu city has been converted into housing colonies by private builders, which has not only damaging the agriculture and forests of the state, but also becoming a threat of major civic problem in future.
The Jammu Development Authority (JDA) has developed only seven colonies and three were developed by the J&K Housing Board.
The most well planned Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar colonies were developed by government in early 60s and 70s. After that Trikuata Nagar, Channi Himmat and Roop Nagar colonies were developed.
Meanwhile, the housing department has developed three colonies in Jammu, Channit Himmat, Patoli and Channi Rama. There after it has been long full stop resulting in proliferation of unauthorized colonies.
“This tendency has not only multiplied the price of the land in government colonies, but also increased the level of corruption in the Housing and Urban Development Department, which includes JDA and the Jammu Municipal Corporation,” he added.
There are many private builders who have constructed multi-storey flats in Jammu city. The permissible height of these flats as per rules laid down by the government is 30 metres, which raises a big question mark on the functioning of the departments concerned which directly comes under the Deputy Chief Minister.
But senior official of the departments are unaware of the facts and figures about the housing colonies developed by their department.
Bipul Pathak, Commissioner Secretary, when asked about the number of colonies developed by the department, said, “I do not have any figures with me, file an RTI then we will send it to the department concerned and you will get the written reply.”
However, JDA Vice Chairman Mubarak Singh said, “Every builder has to take permission from the JDA to develop a new colony and whosoever violates the law, JDA takes strict action against the violator.”
He also informed that the JDA had accelerated the housing projects. “We are now planning to develop colony at Jagti, Nagrota and some more colonies will come up in near future,” he said.
Govt fails to develop new colonies in Jammu, people depend on builders
