Governor accords assent to J&K Civic Laws (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2017

The Bill was passed by voice vote in both the Houses of the State Legislature on July 7, 2017.

An official spokesperson said that the Jammu and Kashmir Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014 was enacted and extended to the areas of Jammu, Srinagar and Katra town.

While according his assent to the said Act in these areas, the Governor had advised the State Government to list all Master Plan violations category-wise for ensuring time bound action in deciding the nature of offences and effectively dealing/regulating the serious offences of un-authorized construction of buildings/structures in the areas covered by the Law under reference.

The Governor had also advised the then Chief Minister to set up a multi-disciplinary Task Force of senior officers to immediately commence work for finalising the State Government's Policy to regulate all constructions. 

This policy was initially scheduled to be formulated before March 31, 2015, as envisaged under Section 3 of the Act, to regulate the unauthorised constructions and Master Plan violations in the aforementioned local areas falling within the ambit of the Act. The policy so formulated was to be in consonance with the Master Plans of these urban areas.

In the past three years, the Governor has discussed this important issue a number of times with the successive Chief Ministers, pointing out that besides infringement of the High Court's orders the continuing failures of the concerned Department (s) are contributing to widespread unauthorised constructions and distract practices.  

Now, as the Jammu and Kashmir Civic Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2014, has been extended till September 30, 2017, and a Policy to regulate unauthorised constructions has been formulated by the State Government, Mr Vohra has urged the Chief Minister to advise all departments/agencies concerned to ensure immediate implementation of the Policy, in letter and in spirit, and ensure that prompt/timely action is taken to carry out demolition of all unauthorised structures.