Srinagar: Former Chief Minister and National Conference President Omar Abdullah has taken a serious note of the ongoing disastrous land-filing of the Doodh Ganga canal here in Batamaloo locality while the NC has locked horns with Srinagar Municipal Corporation(SMC), which is executing the controversial work.
The filing of the Doodh Ganga canal in Batamaloo goes on unabated with PDP’s patronage. Disaster in the making, Omar retweeted.
As already reported by Kashmir Observer, the SMC is land-filling the canal for the rehabilitation of political workers. The ruling Peoples Democratic Party had recently called a meeting of the SMC officials at the PDP headquarters at Sher -e-Kashmir Park, where the Commissioner was allegedly pulled up by party workers for slow pace of land-filling of the canal.
In response, the NC had termed the presence of government officials at the PDP office as fall from grace. Reacting to the allegations, the SMC Commissioner Bashir Ahmed Khan supported the conduction of meeting at the PDP office. Whats wrong in that? he asked.
The Commissioner claimed that the SMC officials held similar meetings at the NC headquarters at Nawa e Subh. But the NC refuted the allegations. The party spokesman posted a tweet to take at dig at the SMC Commissioner.
If the SMC Commissioner has to behave like a PDP Halqa President – least he can do is not lie. No such meeting was ever convened by NC, Junaid Azim Mattu tweeted
SMC Executive Engineer Shafaat Khan confirmed that the canal was being filled, while the Commissioner said it was being done for the rehabilitation.
Though the government plans to rehabilitate political workers on the canal which provided natural outlet to flood waters during floods of 2014, the locals have been up in arms.
It was only because of this canal that the waters receded quickly from our locality during floods but now the government wants to leave this City more flood-prone in the name of rehabilitation of its workers on the flood channel, the inhabitants said.
The locals alleged that they had apprised some politicians from the ruling coalition about the mess, only to be warned to keep quite. We have been threatened not to move Court or that we would have to pay heavily, the inhabitants complained.
Meanwhile, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department officials confirmed that land-filling was illegal. For any such developmental activity NOC from our side is must but we have not issued any such permission. Its illegal, a top official in the IFCD said, asking not to be named.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
ACT NOW |
MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |