PROF. S.K.BHALLA
As per a news item the SC Thursday directed the authorities to remove the remaining illegal structures erected after Oct 25, 1980 on forest land in Faridabad, Haryana and used for non-forest activities without prior approval of the Union Govt. The top court directed to restore the status quo ante and undertake reforestation/afforestation programmes in the right earnest. Centre’s nod needed for change of use of forest land.
Interestingly the situation in our UT is none too promising. I am told that some PIL had been filed and directions passed by the Hon’ble High Court of J&K but the orders of the Court are being implemented more in violation than in observance. By publishing the names of encroachers people have been demonised but continue to occupy forest area and comfortable with illegal structures. It is a titanic mess and all these structures were raised with the blessings of the forest dept. and connected less than honest agencies all out to disfavour environment. Laws are for the fools here and selective application is the slogan.
Even the local populace is least bothered about matters of immense importance affecting all of us. We have here a sleeping civil society and the reason is crystal clear. Majority of people are beneficiaries of illegalities so it is better to brush under the carpet the matters affecting us in the present and the coming generations.
Police officers, bureaucrats, politicians of all shades are beneficiaries of the loot. Loot word is also used if my memory does not deceive me in the Roshni Scam judgment. So we are paving the way for hell with hellish intentions.
Similar is the condition on the font of more than 47 new illegal colonies which mushroomed in JDA/JMC jurisdiction since 2019. I had met the concerned Dy. SP in the office of ACB along with the complainant who is hell bent to get decoded the illegalities perpetrated in the name of so called development and Shehrikaran. Bio-data was recorded, pleasantries exchanged, a few points noted and a cup of hot tea from the canteen shared. It is a beginning and not the end of the road. It may take a few months before a formal FIR is registered and then the usual challan and other formalities. Housing and Urban Dev. Dept. of our UT has a lot more to answer for the brazen violation of rules.
Anyhow, it is a matter of relief that the malady of illegal colonies has invited the attention of a journalist and he is trying his level best that something on this front materialises. The intentions are not suspect but when we see the snail’s pace of work of both ACB and CBI so many doubts crop up. May be they are overburdened or in the alternative waiting for a signal from the top. Let us hope that the complainant shall succeed sooner or later as we should not expect the courts to put their foot down in all the matters.
Satayameva Jayate!