A day after J-K DGP and Additional DGP appeared before the J-K High Court in a case regarding illegal police construction in the prohibited Green belt around the Dal Lake, J-K Urban Housing Development Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir said the government had identified around 600 illegal constructions in the vicinity.Mir said the state government is making a comprehensive plan of action to be taken against all the illegal constructions — hotels, offices and palatial houses in the area, which have come up in past few decades.Among the buildings, are the official residences of former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, director general of police, police mess, houses of a former legislator, former chief town planner, an ex-district commissioner and a police officer besides a few serving bureaucrats, lawyers and businessmen. It also includes some VIP huts and a swimming pool belonging to Grand Palace, a five-star hotel owned by industrialist Lalit Suri, a close friend of Abdullah.The Lakes and Waterways Development Authority and Srinagar Municipality, two premier departments, have a member on the Building Constructions Operation Authority, the organ specifically granting permission for constructions in the city. Yet, thousands of rubina trees were illegally axed and constructions done without any official approval around Chesmashahi.Assuring that the government would not hesitate to carry out demolitions in the area, Mir said: ‘‘The encroachers have been asked to demolish their structures within seven days, failing which bulldozers would be summoned. Nobody is above law and erring officials would be dealt with severely.’’The minister’s assertion follows a report today by the three-member panel formed by him to probe illegal constructions in the green belt. Sub-committees under the panel today went door-to-door to verify the ‘‘genuinity’’ of constructions. Sources said many heads are going to roll as large number of constructions by influential people in the lake’s forbidden area have been done with permission from the concerned authorities. The court had ordered that all construction work in the area be stopped following a PIL filed by Syed Iqbal Tahir Geelani in 2002. The constructions are in violation of the Srinagar Master Plan, 1971.
