Srinagar Mayor won hearts by his single action, people appreciate Demand for high level probe against JCP
Tariq Bhat/ Zahid Yaqoob
Srinagar, Nov 6: The Srinagar acting Mayor Parvaiz Qadri has won thousands of hearts in a night by his fearless action against “red trapism”, that was main cause of inordinate delay in issuing building permissions to applicants in Srinagar.
Srinagar acting Mayor Qadri Thursday locked the office of Joint Commissioner Planning (JCP) of Srinagar Municipal Corporation for failing to deciding applications of applicants within stipulated time.
The development came after scores of delegations had been calling on Qadri in his office, complaining inordinate delay in issuing building permissions.
The official documents accessed by ANN News reveal that some files pertaining to building permission are eating dust in SMC Joint Commissioner Planning (JCP) office for a year now.
The documents further reveal that JCP was using different yard sticks to issue permissions and unnecessarily harassing applicants having no political or bureaucratic recommendations.
In one of the cases, the applicant who had completed all formalities, was asked to get fresh no-objection certificate from Roads and Buildings (R&B) department while JCP rejected his just old month old NoC issued by R&B.
However, in another case, the same JCP accepted one year old NoC of R&B and recommended sanction to building permission.
The poor and middle class people were unnecessarily made to run from post to pillar despite completion of all formalities.
In some cases, the JCP used to direct applicants to submit a NoC from all neighbors, written on affidavit and sworn before first class magistrate —- the rule that never exists in Municipal Act itself.
However, the JCP has remained very kind to influential persons. He granted a building permission to one of the bureaucratic in just 15 days.
Earlier, some Srinagar based newspapers have also reported as how citizens are made to suffer due to inordinate delay in granting building permission that subsequently leads to unauthorized constructions and corruption in Srinagar.
Though the SMC Commissioner Gazanfar Ali had issued directions to his subordinates to issue permissions within the stipulated time of 15 days to applicants, the JCP never adhered to that.
The Municipal Act itself provides for deciding building permission applications within 15 days. It is deemed that permission have been granted in case SMC fails to decide the application within stipulated time.
“The Srinagar Mayor has a done wonderful job by locking the office of JCP. We appreciate his effort and stand with him,” said a group of aggrieved Srinagar residents.
They also demanded high level probe against JCP to know reasons for his using different yard sticks for issuing building permissions.
