Shimla

Saturday, March 25, 2000

M A I N   F E A T U R E

Mindless growth By S. P. Sharma "Govt to come down heavily on land mafia" THE green area along the three national highways in Himachal Pradesh is being replaced by multi-storey buildings and all sort of illegal construction activity while the authorities are doing little to check the lapses. This dismal scenario can be seen on the nearly 90-km stretch of the Kalka-Shimla and the Kulu-Manali highways. Construction activity is also going on along the Pathankot-Mandi highway. The authorities express their helplessness in checking the builders as most of these areas are not covered under the Town and Country Planning Act and the local officials are not armed with effective laws. Successive governments in the state have failed to amend the law to check defacement of the green forests although time and again each party in power has expressed concern over the unchecked growth of the concrete jungle.

Landslides occur at many places because of the soil erosion and deforestation . The Kalka-Shimla highway gets blocked near Barog in Solan district many times during the rainy season as debris flows down from the hills where huge concrete buildings are coming up. The Kiratpur-Manali highway witnesses landslides in the Pandoh area where slate quarrying is in full swing. The Pathankot-Mandi highway also gets affected near Jogindernagar. One can well imagine the number of unplanned and illegal constructions in the state where even the headquarters of the Town and Country Planning, which is responsible for checking such constructions, has been declared an unauthorised building. The building has been constructed on the bypass in Shimla. Nearly 11,000 buildings in the state have so for been declared unauthorised. The state capital of Shimla tops the list with as many as 3949 such buildings, followed by Solan where the number is about 3200. Only eight unauthorised buildings have so far been demolished. The authorities generally take action after the unauthorised building has been completed. At least a dozen government buildings are being constructed in Shimla without the requisite approval. The Town and Country Planning Department has repeatedly sent circulars to the government agencies to remind them that they have to seek prior approval of the department for constructing any building. But all this appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Among the unauthorised constructions detected in Shimla are the additions and alterations in the Raj Bhavan, the minister's house near the H.P. Bhavan, High Court building, house of the Sessions Judge at Kaithu, police head-quarters at Khalini and the PWD head-quarters near Chhota Shimla. The Town and Country Planning Department does not have a full-time Director. The department has had at least seven directors since the past five years. About 70 posts in the department have been lying vacant. The officials of the department say that they do not have any authority to check illegal constructions. The decision of the government to regularise the illegal constructions on payment of a small penalty has come as a bonanza for the offenders. The interim development plan for Shimla has just remained on the papers as not even the government agencies are adhering to it. The Kasumpti area earmarked for construction of government offices has been witnessing all kinds of residential and commercial constructions. A tourist information cell has been constructed right on the national highway near Shimla without any parking facility. The New Shimla Colony developed by the Shimla Development Authority has virtually turned into a concrete jungle with most of the green patches swallowed by influential persons. The colony is being stretched further into the forest area. The development plan for the Kasauli area, prepared two years ago, has also not been implemented. Large-scale construction activity was going on along the Kasauli-Parwanoo road although there was acute scarcity of water. Tankers were being used by the builders to fetch water from the nearby natural sources and streams. The authorities have been going slow on the benami land transactions identified by the Justice Roop Singh Commission. The scenic beauty along the highways is also being destroyed by the huge publicity hoardings which have been installed on both sides of the roads. Many hoardings have even been placed on hill tops and on the curves to attract public attention. These hoardings block the view towards the valley side at many places along the highway. It appears as if the publicity agencies have targeted these areas after a ban on hoardings in Delhi. Moreover, the town area committees and panchayats in the state have been earning revenue by leasing land for these hoardings. Jumbo-sized hoardings have come up on the Shimla-Kalka highway and on the Kiratpur-Manali highway. There are a fewer number of hoardings on the Pathankot-Mandi highway because of the comparatively lesser flow of vehicular traffic there. The influential mining lobby is also playing havoc with the fragile environment of the state. The recent death of two persons in the slate quarries at Khaniyara in Kangra district indicates that mining was continuing there in violation of court orders. At least 20 villages in the interior of Chamba district are sinking because of illegal slate mining. These villages with a population of about 18,000 are situated in the Bakan, Bassu and Samra areas.

"Govt to come down heavily on land mafia" CHIEF Minister P.K. Dhumal has assured that his government would come down heavily on the land mafia which was scarring the beauty of the hill state. The Town and Country Planning Department had been ordered to take strict action against those violating the building laws. The Chief Minister said the building laws would be amended to arm the authorities concerned to be able to take stringent action against the offenders. People would be persuaded to construct only eco-friendly buildings which did not destroy the scenic beauty. He said buildings should not be allowed to be constructed on the highways as they obstructed the flow of traffic. The Deputy Commissioners had been asked to identify land for the setting up of automobile workshops and dhabas. His government had taken strict action against the violators of the Section 118 of the Land Reforms Act who acquired land on benami basis, the Chief Minister said, adding that the constructions in Kasauli and Barog too would be regulated. Director of the Town and Country Planning Department ,Tarun Kapoor, remarked the building law was defective as it was restricted to only 22 planning areas of the state. In the Barog area of Solan district , action could be taken only under the Roadside Control Act. Kapoor agreed that with the coming up of two big cement manufacturing units between Shimla and Mandi, the road had become a virtual corridor of automobile workshops. He informed that development plans were being prepared for Kulu and Palampur with satellite images. The schools of architecture, Delhi and Norway, were assisting in formulating these plans.