HC asks CS to ensure funds for Infrastructure projects
Srinagar, Sept 18: With construction of 16 bridges delayed for years owing to paucity of funds, Jammu and Kashmir High Court has asked the Chief Secretary to look into the matter so that there is no delay in completion of infrastructure projects in J&K.
A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Puneet Gupta passed the direction after hearing counsel for the petition and perusing Jammu & Kashmir Project Construction Corporation’s status report informing that some 16 number of the bridge projects under execution with it including Akhal and Tengchatri bridges.
Regarding Tengchatri Bridge, the counsel for the petitioner advocate Arshid Andrabi stated that it was to be completed in the 2013. He said more than seven years have passed byt the bridge has not been completed till date. Andrabi said that the people of the area are really suffering.
“The status report reduces the problem to inefficient financial planning and release of finances to enable completion of public infrastructure projects,” the bench said, observing that “It cannot be denied that the people must be facing extreme difficulty on account of the non-availability of the means of the connectivity.”
The court said that the matter “needs critical attention at the highest level” as construction of16 bridges is stated to have halted.
“Let a copy of this order be placed before the Chief Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir for immediate examination and looking into the matter of availability of funds so that there is no delay in completion of infrastructure projects in the Union Territory of the Jammu and
Kashmir,” the court said. (GNS)
