Enforcement staff unmoved towards ongoing commercial Hall construction on residential plot 250-C, Sector-2 Channi Himmat deviating from residential approved site plan without maintaining setbacks against JMP-2032 and Unified Building Bye-laws 2021 by covering 90% plot area against allowed 65% plot area

Despite publishing a detailed story along with picture of ongoing commercial construction at 250-C Sector-2 Channi Himmat dated 23-3-2024 and 20-4-2024 highlighting commercial Hall construction without any windows and ventilators without properly maintaining setbacks from front and back side on residential plot with picture but sadly nothing was done in this regard and as a result of which the construction has now reached upto slab level on RCC pillars and in couple of days slab work will be completed.
It deserves mentioning here that the site plan was approved in favour of Chander Bhushan s/o Tarlok Nath vide No. 1430/JMC/BS/2021 dated 22-2-2022. According to approved site plan the owner was allowed ground floor, first floor and 2nd floor 960 Sqft each. The maximum height of building including Mumty/lift was fixed 33 ft from front road level. The owner was duty bound to observe setbacks including front 12 ft and 6 inch, rear 7 ft 9 inch but the new owner Vishav Deepak Suri didn’t observe these mandatory setbacks as towards front side there is hardly 8 ft space and from backside hardly it is 2ft and infect raised commercial construction. The owner also raised ground floor covering nearly 1250 Sqft area against allowed 960 sqft by changing both internal and external dimensions openly making land use change
Housing Board didn’t transfer ownership rights of plot 539/4 measuring 40×80 Sqft to rectify its past mistake of allotting two plots in the name of one person another being residential plot 5/4 measuring 50×100 Sqft both in Channi Himmat Housing Board colony main road , Ward-50 so no NOC granted for selling plot by Housing Board, JMC can’t approve site plan in favour of new owner but started commercial construction on his own with help of enforcement staff deputed in area
GY CORRESPONDENT
jammu, apr 30
With the change of guards in Jammu Municipal Corporation and designating more powers and also managing extra manpower, the old routine practice of khilafwarzi inspectors to patronize illegal constructions by smartly playing on the name of issuance of notice under 7(1) and 8 (3) of BOCA/ Municipal Act 2000 have once again resumed an alarming proportion which raised question marks on the functioning of higher ups in JMC especially the enforcement wing. Though the incumbent Commissioner Rahul Yadav during surprise visits in various parts of city himself noticed scores of massive illegal constructions especially installation of iron shutter in violation of land use, however, this fail to deter the illegal constructions within jurisdiction of JMC. Blaming the higher ups for encouraging this illegal construction in Channi Himmat J&K Housing Board colony, locals of the locality are of the view “Every day without failure the enforcement inspector Gagan Kumar used to visit this illegal construction site but after exchange of greetings disappear. There is something fishy else without consent of concerned enforcement inspector owner cannot even fix a single brick”.
To put the things in perspective , one Vishav Deepak Suri owner of residential Govt plot 250-C, Serctor-2, measuring 25 x54+ 65/2 (1487 Sqft) on main road of Channi Himmat Housing Board colony adjoining with Govt Middle School Channi Himmat and also old settlements backside of this plot has raised commercial construction on RCC Pillars on a site plan approved by previous owner Chander Bhushan without maintaining mandatory setbacks. It deserves mentioning here that Vishav Deepak Suri purchased this plot from Chander Bhushan and in turn Chander Bhushan bought it from original alottee Neelam Lata on 14-11-2019 costing worth crores and the same got registered in Court of law dated 29-6-2022 and the aim of purchasing plot was very much clear to raise commercial construction which became a reality after taking our possession and commercial construction started at site.
It deserves mentioning here that the residential site plan was approved in favour of Chander Bhushan s/o Tarlok Nath vide No. 1430/JMC/BS/2021 dated 22-2-2022 who didn’t start construction and infect sold it out to Suri as vacant plot. According to approved site plan the owner was allowed ground floor, first floor and 2nd floor 960 Sqft each. The maximum height of building including Mumty/lift was fixed 33 ft from front road level. The owner was duty bound to observe setbacks including front 12 ft and 6 inch, rear 7 ft 9 inch but the new owner Vishav Deepak Suri didn’t observe these mandatory setbacks as towards front side there is hardly 8 ft space and from backside hardly it is 2ft and infect raised commercial construction on a residential plot as there are no windows, ventilators and partition walls and infect full-fledged one commercial hall with lift provision and in no way it is residential construction with only one shutter from front side measuring 10 ft. The owner also raised ground floor covering nearly 1250 Sqft area against allowed 960 sqft by changing both internal and external dimensions.
It deserves mentioning here that when this construction was going on , this newspaper published a detailed story along with picture of ongoing commercial construction dated 23-3-2024 and 20-4-2024 bringing into kind notice of enforcement staff that against residential approved site plan, unauthorized construction is going on but sadly nothing was done in this regard but orally they inform that the owner has been asked to remove violations . Moreover both Deputy Commissioner (South) and Dy Commissioner (North) have been recently delegated powers to ensure that there should be proper communication between them and field staff and the every report submitted by field staff should be cross-checked by them but the same was not done in this regard and so the question of serving any BOCA notices doesn’t arise . Anyhow as no action taken by JMC, now the full-fledged commercial construction on RCC pillars has almost reached to slab level and in couple of days it is likely that the slab work on first floor will be completed without observing mandatory setback neither from front side nor from backside and till date nothing has been done by enforcement staff against the owner despite strong resentment from locals and lodging of complaints by them having serious reservations with regard to ongoing commercial construction in residential area.
Similarly one Mushtaq Ahmad s/o Khawaja Abdul Aziz r/o 64 D/C Gandhi Nagar Jammu was allotted two residential plot 5/4 measuring 50×100 Sqft Channi Himmat Housing Board colony main road , Ward-50 and another one 539/4 measuring 40×80 Sqft Channi Himmat Housing Board colony main road , Ward-50 . It deserves mentioning here that at the outset that as per Housing Board’s norms one person can’t be allotted more than one plot but Mushtaq Ahmad being very influential person somehow managed to get allotment of two plots. However as mentioned above these two plots were never meant to be utilized for residential purposes which later on evident from the fact that both the plots were later on sold out one to Varun Rohmetra in the year 2005 which stands transferred in his name in the year 2005 and the another plot 539/4 was also old out but the same could not be transferred in the name of new owner as Housing Board informed that it is unfair on part of owner to buy two residential plots and the wrong has already been done now is the time to rectify the wrongs done earlier hence another plot was not transferred in the name of new owner.
Anyhow the owner Mushtaq and new owner fully guided by Enforcement staff especially Enforcement Officer and Enforcement Inspector deputed in Channi Himmat area Ward-50 started construction on his own without getting site plan approved from JMC that too commercial construction on RCC Pillars on residential plot without observing mandatory setbacks as the hundred percent plot area covered under construction. As the enforcement staff is hand in glove with violators, question doesn’t arise to take action against this unauthorized construction without JMC permission and as a result of unauthorized construction going on continuously since April 10th 2024. It deserves mentioning here that in two notices separately issued by Housing Board and JMC to alotees for not raising construction and keeping their plots vacant for years together when the construction was to be raised within three years of execution of deed. Also the final notice was served to these allotters that in case within two months time they failed to raise construction on their vacant plots, their lease deed will be cancelled. It has been already highlighted that in the garb of this final notice several unauthorized constructions have come up in Channi Himmat area without getting site plan approved from JMC and present construction in question is live example of such an arrangement especially in facilitating commercial construction on residential plots.
Notwithstanding huge unauthorized construction against approved site plans going on unabated in Channi Himmat Govt planned Housing Colony resulting in serious violations of Master Plan 2032 and Unified Building Bye-laws 2021,JMC enforcement staff has been offering tutor services to violators how to raise unauthorized constructions and how to retain it if any relevant notice against unauthorized construction is issued against him. In other words, the action against violators for raising construction against guidelines of JMP-2032 in the form of serving notices under section 253,254 of J&K Municipal Corporation Act 2000 have so far turned mere cosmetic exercise as in most of the cases no follow-up was taken resulting in unabated unauthorized constructions in Channi Himmat area.