J&K govt to have policy on unauthorised constructions

Jammu and Kashmir government has identified over 10,000 unauthorised constructions and is set to come out with a strong policy to deal with such violations, a top official said today.
"J&K is battling with massive unauthorised constructions and courts have earlier called for sealing of such constructions. So, our Government will come out with policy very soon to deal with unauthorised constructions strongly," Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Mohammad Ashraf Mir said.
The policy will have all the features to regularise unauthorised colonies and constructions in some cases, to deal human angle with unauthorised constructions of poor, to undertake demolition of other illegal structures and to award penalty on illegal constricts under various categories, Mir said.

There are over 10,000 violations under various acts in terms of illegal constructions, Mir said.
The policy will focus on the unauthorised constructions in Jammu, Srinagar capital cities and Katra, base camp of Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine.
In the draft policy, only those illegal constructions that have come up before March 5, 2014 will be considered for one time settlement by imposing hefty penalty, while the constructions post March 5 will be regularised.

In case of major violations having taken place before March 5, 2014, no leniency has been proposed in the policy, which remains applicable for one year beyond April 1, 2015.

The Minister further said the exercise to formulate policy was started on the directions of the High Court, which had even issued orders to seal illegal and unauthorised constructions last year.
This issue was deliberated upon by a high-level committee, and subsequently J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 was enacted so that a comprehensive policy could be formulated to tackle the issue of these violations by the end of March 2015.