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No demolition will take place in area around Doodhganga nullah: Srinagar mayor
On Saturday, MC commissioner Athar Aamir Khan had issued a notice for restoration of Doodhganga nullah from Aalochi Bagh to Chattabal, further asking the alleged encroachers to remove encroachments within seven days. The notice had triggered protests by Aalochi Bagh residents
Three days after the Srinagar municipal corporation (MC) asked residents to remove encroachments from area in and around Doodhganga nullah, mayor Junaid Azim Mattu on Tuesday said neither anyone will be displaced nor any house or slum be demolished.
On Saturday, MC commissioner Athar Aamir Khan had issued a notice for restoration of Doodhganga nullah from Aalochi Bagh to Chattabal, further asking the alleged encroachers to remove encroachments within seven days. The notice had triggered protests by Aalochi Bagh residents.
Mattu said he had on Monday held a detailed meeting with the residents of various localities and colonies on the stretch. The meeting was also attended by MC commissioner Khan. “…No colonies will be displaced, nor any houses demolished -- including the downtrodden colonies and slum settlements on this stretch,” Mattu said in a statement.
The mayor said that the Doodhganga Canal Restoration and Rejuvenation Project was a vital flood mitigation project. However, he assured the residents that not a single residential colony, including slum structures, would be disturbed or affected by this project.
“A public notice that has been issued concerns encumbrances, obstacles and physical encroachments within and on top of the canal and does not pertain to residential colonies, houses or structures. Not a single house will be demolished by this project,” he added.
The revenue department has launched a massive land eviction drive in Jammu and Kashmir to retrieve government land which has left people in the union territory worried as they fear their homes and business establishments will be bulldozed.
Though the administration has assured the poor won’t be touched and the grabbed government land is being retrieved for public use, it has done little to build public trust in the exercise.
Over the past three weeks, hundreds of kanals of government land have been retrieved and buildings bulldozed under the drive.
