Traders seek action against officials ‘allowing’ illegal constructions

The Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), an amalgam of various traders’ bodies, today demanded action against officials, who gave permission to construct malls without parking lots in the city.

“We appeal to the High Court to look into the hidden facets of illegal constructions.

Those officials who allow illegal constructions should be taken to task and not the innocent people who are fleeced even when they have a genuine permission,” KEA chairman Haji Muhammad Yasin Khan said in a statement.

He was reacting to the recent sealing of commercial establishments without parking facilities by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). Terming the sealing ex

ercise a “deep-rooted conspiracy to deprive Srinagar of development and subsequently make the people of Kashmir suffer”, Khan said: “Why was sealing only undertaken in Srinagar, whereas Jammu city and other areas like Kathua, Katra and Udhampur have been spared?”

“From the offices of multinational companies to banks, all business establishments have got closed as a part of the sealing and that the government is depriving the youth of employment opportunities and leaving no space other than that of revolt for them,” he added.

Khan said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti “must know” that the “first action from the government side should have been that those officials of the SMC and other departments who allowed the violation of building permissions be sacked from their services”.