STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In a significant development in the multi-crore land scam case, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday directed the various state government agencies including Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board to maintain the status quo with regard to construction on the land reclaimed from Thanger nallah in Channi Himmat Housing colony.
After the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh failed to set up high-level inquiry to fix the responsibility of corrupt officers allegedly involved in allotment of reclaimed land of Thanger Nallah for commercial sites to private players, a group of residents of Channi Himmat Housing colony led by PL Kohli, retired Additional Director Engineering wing of Agricultural Department, Ram Nath Sharma, Vishav Bandhu, Sardar Ujagar Singh, Bashir Ahmad, Pravin Kumar Kandhari, Sardar Sujjan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and others decided to knock the doors of the J&K High Court to seek directions from the court of law to immediately check illegal activities on the reclaimed land of Thanger Nallah.
In the petition, the residents had pleaded before the court of law that some officials of the J&K Housing Board are attempting to allot the land retrieved/reclaimed from Thanger Nallah to private individuals for development of multi-story commercial sites.
The petitioners who had earlier spearheaded a campaign for Green Belt in Channi Himmat along the bypass road, also pleaded before the High Court that the reclaimed land cannot be converted in to commercial sites and the same should be used for development of green belt on the pattern of Green belt in front of Reserve Bank of India complex in Trikuta Nagar.
After hearing the petitioners through Advocate Aditiya Gupta in the case, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal on Thursday passed an interim order directing the state government agencies including the J&K Housing Board to maintain the status quo with regard to construction on the spot.
Notices were also served to the respondents in the case and the court directed that the case be listed before the bench in July 2015 along with OWP NO 648/2015.
Meanwhile, before moving the court the residents of Channi Himmat had also demanded setting up of separate Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly inquire into allotment of residential/commercial plots, change of land use, permission to construct commercial complexes in residential areas illegal transfer of leases in last three years in Channi Himmat Housing colony.
