By Mudassir Kuloo
Srinagar, Jun 05: A PDP minister and the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry have objected to the transfer of 246 kanals of industrial land to the police for constructing a housing colony.
Out of 527 kanals estate of erstwhile HMT factory, the state government has allotted 246 kanals to police for building a housing colony and 80 kanals to the paramilitary SSB.
The factory was closed in ‘90s after the onset of militancy.
Minister of state for Industries and Commerce Department, Asiea Naqesh, said the land was meant for the unemployed youth to set up industrial units.
“There is no industrial land available in Srinagar. I am not in favour of transferring the industrial land to the police for construction of the housing colony,” she told The Kashmir Monitor.
Naqash said the Chief Minister has said that the government may consider transferring 126 kanals of land to the police.
“I don’t know who issued the orders for transferring of 246 kanals of land to police,” she said.
She said KCCI has also raised the issue with the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti.
“This is an industrial land and it shall be provided to the unemployed youth. The Chief Minister is considering it,” she said.
However, Commissioner Secretary Industries and Commerce, Shailendra Kumar, said the construction of a police colony at erstwhile HMT land is “a cabinet decision which has been implemented”.
The KCCI has also submitted a memorandum to the government.
It reads: “The KCCI has been, for the last three decades, demanding retrieval of the HMT land for catering to the needs of local industry in the form of Gem and Jewellery Cluster including Gem and Jewellery Institute as also Integrated Textile Park and catering to local requirement.”
The memorandum further reads, “The state government has not only regularised the forcible occupation but gone one step ahead further by presiding over the butchering of any entrepreneurial hopes the local business community and unemployed youth might have harboured.”
“The local entrepreneurs shall now have to set up vibrant business enterprises at places not suitable for housing colonies and security camps. The state government has stabbed the local industry in the back.”
As per a government order, J&K’s Industries and Commerce Department has allocated 246 kanal of land to Police Department for construction of a housing colony in lieu of due payment.
Earlier in 2010, on the directions of then chief minister Omar Abdullah, the industries and commerce department had constituted a high-level committee comprising managing director SICOP, MD SIDCO and director industries Kashmir “to look into the land issue.”
The committee had recommended use of the factory land for industrial purposes, stating it would generate job opportunities for more than 1,000 unemployed youth.
