J-K govt directs officials to act on encroachments along Tawi

The Jammu and Kashmir government has directed the state administration to remove all encroachments along the Tawi river immediately as per the high court's order.

A division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court comprising Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta in July had directed the divisional commissioner in Jammu to ask agencies concerned to survey and forthwith remove and dismantle the illegal constructions and encroachments, whether residential or commercial, which have been made or is being made on the state land near the river bed.

In compliance with the order, Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma reviewed the status alongside the river at a meeting here today and directed all authorities including the police to remove encroachments immediately, a spokesman said.

Verma directed the authorities to immediately remove illegal structures alongside the river Tawi and to submit report at the earliest, he said.

There are around three to four illegal colonies which are set up very close to fourth Tawi bridge in the city.

Joint Director Geology and Mining informed the divisional commissioner that monitoring teams have already been in place at district and division level to check illegal extractions.

She further informed that CCTV cameras have been installed on the fourth Tawi Bridge and officers directed to monitor the footage regularly to ensure no illegal extraction of minerals was being carried out from the river bed.

The forest authorities informed the meeting about the status of geo-tagging. Police was asked to constitute special squads and coordinate with other departments to keep a check on stone crushers.

Earlier, the government in the state assembly had said that 1,510 acres of land in the city has been encroached as it admitted that the Jammu Development Authority is yet to demarcate 6,818 acres of land meant for development.