High Court direction
Sonamarg development authority in the recent past along with the district authorities of Ganderbal have allowed the hoteliers and other people having huts to go for the repairs and have informed the court also about such repairs.
The latest about Sonamarg meadow and about the river Sindh and its both banks to be cleared of illegal constructions, has brought the question back in focus are the authorities serious to save the ecologically fragile Sonamarg area from further damage.
JK High Court has directed the JK administration in the latest direction to file compliance reports on a quarterly basis in a calendar year regarding its various directions “related to safeguarding Sonamarg from illegal constructions and preserving its fragile ecology”.
Expressing concern over the slow pace of work by the administration to clear the illegal constructions on both sides of river Sindh and also in and around the meadow of Sonamarg, the court asked the government to file the first compliance report on 15 January 2021, positively.
Setting the calendar for the compliance reports, Chief Justice of JK High Court Gita Mittal in the division bench asked the JK administration to file these reports on the due dates in the coming year.
Even after these clear directions from JK high court, different wings of the administration in Ganderbal seem unmoved to remove the illegal constructions as most of the huts have been constructed on the both banks of river Sindh from Wayaul Bridge up To Sonamarg.
These illegal constructions were allowed by the authorities and they are now in hundreds. It needs an iron will of the administration to remove these constructions and to save this ecologically fragile area from further damage.
