Srinagar, Aug 08: The High Court (HC) of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Monday asked amicus curiae to make suggestions, by next date of hearing, on a status report filed by the J&K government regarding framing of scheme for flood control, improvement of embankments of river Jhelum.
The court also asked the counsel, Shafkat Nazir, appearing for the petitioner, Environmental Policy Group (EPG), to respond to the status report by September 30.
The court passed the direction after the Principal Secretary Irrigation & Flood Control (I & FC) Department furnished a status report before it.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice J&K, Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal directed the amicus to go through the said report and make suggestions by the next date of hearing.
Previously, the court was informed by the Assistant Solicitor General of India, T. M. Shamsi that the central government has provided sufficient funds for the restoration and preservation of the river Jhelum and for control of the floods.
Earlier, the court had directed the Chief Engineer, Irrigation & Flood Control (I&FC) Department to submit in tabulation form the entire exercise his Department has taken right from the time of initiation of the PIL till date with reference to the original length and breadth of the river and the Padshahi Canal.
The court also directed the Chief Engineer, I & FC to submit the present status regarding the number of encroachments removed and the steps that are being taken in that regard.
The respondents were also directed to place before it a complete roadmap which they propose to implement for the cleanliness, preservation and the development of the river and the canals.
The court was hearing a PIL by EPG, an Enviro-Social think tank, through its Convenor, Faiz Ahmad Bakshi, highlighting the acts of omission and commission by the Central and J&K government committed before, during and after the devastating floods of 2014 in Kashmir.
Referring to an RTI report, the petition alleges that the Irrigation & Flood Control and the Central Water Resource Ministry knew in 2009 that a major flood would occur between 2010 and 2015 “but did little to take measures to avert it.”
“Its action remained confined to making plans and projects without taking practical steps to implement them on ground. Instead the dredging of river Jhelum that had been started in early sixties was abandoned in 2012,” it alleged.
Moreover, the plea alleged that the I&FC Department not only failed in increasing the carrying capacity of river Jhelum, Wular and other water bodies through desiltation “but instead their carrying capacity drastically got reduced thereby exposing the valley to more 2014-flood like situations thereby agonising the people every time it rains for two-three days.”
The PIL also includes various government, non-government and expert reports which reveal that the 2014-floods were more man-made than a natural disaster that could have been averted if timely measures had been taken.
