Pahalgam Master Plan Implemented today.
Srinagar September 05,2017: There was a time when the Pahalgam Master plan 2005-25 was being worked upon and all objections and suggestions to which were filled in by the then chief town-planner Mir Naseem and Town Planner Abdul Hamid along with their team, irrespective of whoever's names were shown in! No wonder, they helped their own kith and kin as much as they could and permission for construction was given to areas where these people had their lands esp in forest areas like Circuit road ganieshbal presently named pine clif resorts, Near Hotel Hill Park one CTP's brother doctor and chanhaji lush green forest area . However, when pahalgam peoples welfare organisation PPWO gathered the courage to file the public interest litigation PIL before Jammu and kashmir hon'ble high court in 2008, a case was also registered in August 2008 against these officers in vigilance organisation of kashnir VOK and last year itself, the then town-planner has been identified and declared dead wood and has been removed from the department for all his fraudulent practices.
It is true that the people of the region have undergone much suffering and have faced a difficult time due to the construction ban, but their patience has paid off and justice has finally been done, with a pro people judgement finally having being pronounced master plan 2014-2032 now implemented on ground and people got permission from BOCA as per this revised master plan, but no scope of any leniency or relaxation in green-area public/forest land use. Apart form this, the hon'ble court today has also directed the Pahalgam Development Authority PDA to undertake proper management of solid and waste and sewage treatment and has clearly ordered that source segregation of waste be adopted, as we have been demanding over the years.
This is not a small accomplishment and the fact that we have won with the support and patience of the people of Pahalgam, and that we have battle together for a long nine years is the greatest victory in itself. There was so much that we did not know when we started off and there's much more still that we have learnt over the years! We can only be grateful to the almighty that justice has finally been done and we must acknowledge that it's only truth that wins at last. I must also thank our friends and co litigants, Riyaz Ahmad Lone and Khala Peer and our counsel in the case, noted human rights activist and lawyer Parvez Imroz shb, for their sustained support and courage all along. Friends and newspapers in the media esp,Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Times, Early Times etc also merit our gratitude for taking the issue to a wider audience and for making this fight for the rights of the people of Pahalgam, their own. All of us need to continue to stand together in the battle and take things to their logical last end till proper implementation is delivered, and I solicit everybody's support and cooperation in this.
Mushtaq Pahalgami
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