Mayor shoots letter to CS, seeks constitution of SIT, time bound probe
Gul Owais
Srinagar, Dec 15: After complaints of illegal and unauthorized commercial construction in the last six months, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Mayor has written to the government to seek a time bound probe to make facts public.
Soon after assuming the chair for the second time after the Municipal elections were held, SMC Mayor Junaid Azim Matoo has written to the Chief Secretary, J&K government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged illegal constructions in Srinagar areas falling within the limits of the corporation.
Matoo, who has switched to Apni Party headed by Syed Altaf Bukhari informed about this decision through a tweet wherein he said that unauthorized commercial constructions are coming up in Srinagar.
He added that some of the buildings include those with deviations from authorized permissions in the last six months.
“There has been an unprecedented spurt in massive unauthorized commercial constructions in Srinagar (as well as those with deviations from authorized permissions) in the past 6 months. I’m writing to Chief Secretary, J&K Govt seeking constitution of an SIT and a timebound probe,” Matoo tweeted.
Moreover, the official twitter handle of SMC Mayor shortly informed that the Mayor has formally sought the constitution of the SIT and a time bound probe to bring the facts about the illegal and unauthorized commercial constructions within the Municipal limits of Srinagar.
“Mayor Srinagar @Junaid_Mattu formally seeks the constitution of an SIT and a time-bound probe into illegal, unauthorized commercial constructions in Srinagar,” The Mayor of Srinagar tweeted.
Sources within the SMC told Precious Kashmir that many residential houses have been turned into commercial buildings in Srinagar following which complaints started pouring in.
“The complaints about it were pouring in from a long time back, but the action for this would be initiated now after some of the building owners were found violating the norms,” they said, adding that a probe would be soon conducted in this regard and all those involved will be dealt with strictly as per the law.
However, Mayor SMC couldn’t be contacted to have further comments in this regard while officials in the corporation informed that the process to act against the violators will be initiated only after the probe is conducted by the government.