Government plans to develop 9 satellite township in J&K, identifies land

Jammu, Mar 8: The government of J&K on Saturday said that it was planning to construct nine satellite townships across Jammu and Kashmir and confirmed that land had already been identified for the project. Minister for Health and Medical Education, Sakeena Itoo said that 1298.28 kanal of land has been identified for establishment of nine townships in J&K.

The Minister was replying on behalf of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, to a question raised by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) MLA, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra in the Legislative Assembly. She said that the establishment of these townships is to check unplanned urban expansion and meet housing needs of people of J&K. Itoo said that the government would establish the townships to check unplanned urban expansion and meet housing needs of people of J&K. Providing details, the Minister said that the 1298.28 land parcels had been identified across J&K for the purpose.

A total of 30 kanals have been identified at Padgampura (Pulwama), 200 kanals at Watapora (Bandipora), 85 kanals at Bhalwal (Jammu), 81.48 kanals at Chnagrah (Kathua), 353.35 kanals at Chatterhama( Srinagar), 214 kanals at Bakoora (Ganderbal), 248.65 kanals at Chak Bhalwal (Jammu), 69 kanals at Chowdhai (Jammu) and 16.80 kanals at Kanuyian (Poonch).

Additionally, the Srinagar Development Authority had identified 4200 kanals along the National Highway bypass at Bemina Srinagar (Rakhi Gund Aksha), and the Jammu Development Authority identified land in Sidhra Jammu.

In response, Parra said, “The definition of people of Jammu and Kashmir is a vague term. We want to know the number of domiciles”.

He said that the development taking place in Jammu and Kashmir post-abrogation is a large-scale destruction and devastation of environmental ecology.

“There should be an environmental assessment of all the mega projects and townships”, said Parra. He pointed out that a month ago, the Minister said that there was no proposal for townships, but now he claims the government has such plans. Parra said that a letter from the civil secretariat about the acquisition of 1 lakh kanals had been issued, but the government had only mentioned 1200 kanals and additional 4000 kanals in Srinagar SDA colony in its reply.

“When you are talking about Rakhi land, it is largely wet land and we are facing a climate crisis”, Parra said. He also pointed out that there was no clarity on who the land was intended for.