The owner deviating from approved residential site plan raised three commercial halls without maintaining setbacks and didn’t construct proper kitchen, living room, drawing room and porch. Owner initially to hoodwink general public kept window for kitchen on ground floor and main entry from porch area on ground floor and raised stairs quite back of porch to reach first and 2nd floors and didn’t construct duplex house and keeping entry to kitchen from porch area besides constructing extra room on 2nd floor excluding mumty.
This violated construction was duly highlighted by print media by publishing first story on 13-11-2024 and 2nd story on 21-11-2024 along with pictures on behalf of aggrieved locals and after thorough investigation of approved site plan and the construction raised at the site. JMC however in an eyewash action asked owner to stop ongoing violated construction for some time but didn’t serve owner relevant notices under JMC Act 2000 when the owner had raised commercial construction after getting residential site plan approved from JMC against JMP-2032 and Unified Building Bye-laws 2021.
At the site the window of kitchen has been removed once again and it has been given round shape to approach commercial hall from backside as there are no partition walls, no bed rooms, lobby, drawing room at all. The owner has also given round shape to porch area and infect closed the entry from porch area and infect on his own constructed a small entry cutting porch area and keeping stairs from backside to reach at first and 2nd floors completely against residential approved site plan . In spite of all this concerned JMC enforcement staff deputed in Channi Himmat area has not moved even an inch and infect giving undue patronage to owner
GY CORRESPONDENT
JAMMU, JAN 28
One Surinder Kour wife of Charan Singh r/o Tali Morh, Miran Sahib Jammu purchased a residential plot 328/4 measuring 30×55 (1650 Sqft) on main 60 ft road of Channi Himmat zonal planned colony in Ward-50 for residential purposes. The owner accordingly got approved residential site plan from JMC vide No. 148/JMC/BS/2023-24 dated 25-4-2023. As per approved site plan, the owner was allowed ground+ two floors measuring 98.16 sqm( 1056 Sqft) each floor. The owner was duty bound to observe mandatory setbacks including front- 3.96 mtr (13 ft) and rear -2 mtr(6.5 ft) with open area 55.02 sqm having total plot area 153.18 sqm. The height of building was fixed as 10 mtr from the front road level. The owner accordingly paid residential building fee Rs 15707. It deserves mentioning here that in the approved site plan front set back has been wrongly shown as 18.29 mtr which is next to impossible to maintain such a front set back.
As per drawing of approved site plan , the owner towards front side was to construct kitchen left side ,porch right side, followed by living room drawing room then back of them two bed rooms with common toilet along with stairs inside as witnessed in duplex residential house. On first and 2nd floor, the owner was allowed verandah on porch area and rest of construction altogether same as in case of ground floor.
The owner deviating from approved site plan raised violated commercial hall construction without any partition walls without maintaining setbacks and didn’t construction proper kitchen, living room, drawing room and infact raised commercial hall. However it deserves mentioning here that the owner initially to hoodwink general public kept window for kitchen on ground floor and main entry from porch area and raised stairs quite back of porch to reach first and 2nd floors and didn’t construct duplex house by not constructing stairs alongside living room to reach first and 2nd floors and kept stairs from backside towards back of porch area .
The owner actually constructed commercial hall measuring nearly 1400 sqft covering construction area of kitchen by removing exiting window and kept provision for fitting of iron shutter measuring 10×10 ft and divided porch area into a shop measuring 10×10 and separate entry to reach at first and 2nd floor as there was no indication of residential construction in absence of living room, drawing room, bed room except toilet on ground floor. The owner didn’t observe mandatory setbacks as owner left 7 ft from front side when he was supposed to leave 10 ft besides extending 3 ft galleries on three floors . The owner also didn’t observe setback from back side. Meanwhile owner successfully managed to raise two more commercial floors at par with ground floor in area.
The owner also raised extra construction of single room measuring more than 300 sqft on 3rd floor with bathroom other than mumty. The owner has already completed plaster work on three floors from back and either side of building including front side.Worthwhile to mention here that owner instead of plaster work from front side , infact started converting residential ground floor into full-fledged commercial hall by removing window of kitchen and giving it round shape and closed extra entry to kitchen from porch by removing door and infact constructed shop measuring 7×10 ft . The owner is also using porch area measuring 8×10 ft to construct shop with separate wall and keeping altogether separate entry to reach at first and 2nd floor by cutting area of porch area by nearly 5 ft. The owner also raised height of compound wall up to 7 ft to hide ongoing violated commercial construction.
Worthwhile to mention here that this violated construction was duly highlighted by print media by publishing first story on 13-11-2024 along with pictures on behalf of aggrieved locals and after thorough investigation of approved site plan and the construction raised at the site. JMC however in an eyewash action asked owner to stop ongoing violated construction for some time but didn’t serve owner relevant notices under JMC Act 2000 when the owner had raised commercial construction after getting residential site plan approved from JMC against JMP-2032 and Unified Building Bye-laws 2021. In an endeavor to hoodwink general public and to spare action from JMC authorities yet again installed window and this time raised compound wall to nearly 7 ft and installed gate to hide ongoing commercial construction.
It is pertinent to mention here that as on date 28-1-2025 at the site the window of kitchen has been removed once again and it has been given round shape to approach commercial hall from backside as there are no partition walls at all. The owner has also given round shape to porch area and infect closed the entry from porch area and infect on his own constructed a small entry cutting porch area and keeping stairs from backside to reach at first and 2nd floors completely against residential approved site plan . In spite of all this concerned JMC enforcement staff deputed in Channi Himmat area has not moved even an inch and infect giving undue patronage to owner to raise violated commercial construction on three floors at par with each other against Unified Building Bye-laws 2021.
It is highly unfortunate that open land use change is going on but as on date JMC enforcement staff deployed in Ward -50 has not moved even an inch despite bringing the same into kind notice of Enforcement staff much to the agony of aggrieved locals who have already strongly resented land use change openly and brazenly and no action by JMC higher authorities. It is also noteworthy that Housing Board should also take serious cognizance of this violated construction as ongoing construction on three floors is sheer breach of Lease deed agreement. Commissioner JMC should pay instant heed to ongoing unauthorized constructions and ask enforcement staff to perform their duty honestly and sincerely failing which it would be extremely difficult to implement JMP-2032 in letter and spirit.
