VIVEK SHARMA
JAMMU: High Court of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday ordered status quo on construction of Stone Crusher and Tiles Unit owned by the son of Minister for Forest, Ecology & Environment Choudhary Lal Singh.
The direction came on a petition filed by the residents of villages Dhanna and Barrah in district Kathua through Advocate Ankur Sharma, seeking cancellation of all NOCs issued in favour of Forest Minister’s, son Divya Suraj Partap Singh, violating all norms and rules.
Justice Tashi Rabstan, after hearing Advocate Ankur Sharma for petitioner and Advocate U K Jalali and Asheesh Singh Kotwal for respondents, ordered that status quo on today shall be maintained till next date of hearing before the bench.
The villagers sought relief from illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and whimsical approach adopted by the senior government officers by allowing Divya Suraj Pratap Singh to set up around Rs 12 crore Stone Crusher and Tiles Unit on the paddy growing irrigated agricultural land near thickly populated area.
Citing an RTI reply, the petition states that letter No. OQ/35 dated June 14, 2016 titled ‘Title Verification’ issued by Tehsildar Kathua mentions that the kind of soil on which Forest Minister Lal Singh’s son wants to install the Stone Crusher and Tiles Unit is ‘Pail Nehari’.
The RTI reply also contains an NOC DCK/HQ/2016-17/316-17 dated July 7, 2016 issued in favour of the Unit by the Office of Deputy Commissioner Kathua wherein the DC Kathua refers to the title verification issued by Tehsildar Kathua, (describing the soil type as ‘Pail Nehari’) and observes that given this title verification, this office has no objection against the installation of the Stone Crusher and Tiles Unit.
The inhabitants of village Dhanna under the Chairmanship of Sarpanch convened a meeting of the Gram Sabha to stop the installation of this Unit in their village Dhanna , saying this will pollute the nearby residential areas. They alleged that hundreds of kanals of government land has been encroached.
The issuance of NOCs and permissions to Forest Minister’s son for setting up of the Unit by the officials in contravention of law and set norms/ procedures is a result of abuse of office and criminal conspiracy, states the petition.
Advocate Ankur Sharma stated that the Chairman State Pollution Control Board, Jammu had prescribed a revised and approved criteria with respect to new stone crushers vide its office order No. SPCB/PS/CH/PA/IV/131-135 dated February 2004. However, in this case, all rules were violated.
The petition has sought quashing the consent order No. 401 of 2016 dated June 29, 2016 issued by J&K State Pollution Control Board in favour of M/s Rawi Stone Crusher LLP at village Dhanna, the establishment of which on the agricultural i.e. Pail Nehari land/soil and in between thickly populated area will affect the residents of Dhanna and Barrah villages prejudicially by damaging their agricultural lands and causing damage to the environment.
Advocate Sharma has further sought cancelation of all NOCs granted in favour of M/s Rawi Stone Crusher LLP village Dhanna for setting up the unit producing stone crusher material, hot mix material and cement bricks/blocks/ pavers/tiles.
“In documents, the stone crusher has been shown set up over 7 Kanals of land while on ground it is spread over 100 Kanals State land, encroached by the Minister’s son,” said Advocate Ankur Sharma.
Sources told STATE TIMES that Deputy Commissioner, Kathua Ramesh Kumar under pressure despite objections from Tehsildar had to issue No Objection Certificate (NoC) in favour of Divya Suraj Partap Singh, son of Forest Minister Lal Singh, for setting up Stones Crusher and Tiles Unit.
The NoC had five -six conditions on which it was to be honoured but Forest Minister Lal Singh known for grabbing land at Kathua and committing many other irregularities like using harsh words for Gujjar community, doctors etc etc, did not care to fulfill the conditions, went for the execution of his project without obeying the directions of DC’s NoC which ultimately became one of the basis for the petitioners to approach the court for justice.
An officer on the assurance of anonymity told STATE TIMES that NoC of Pollution Control Board has also been issued as Choudhary Lal Singh is the minister concerned.