HC to hear all probe reports on illegal constructions on April 16
JAMSHEDPUR: Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday fixed April 16 as the next date for hearing the interim and final report by the legal panel constituted by it to investigate violations of Jharkhand building by-laws, traffic rules and regulations in 1,246 buildings in Jamshedpur, people close to the development said on Tuesday.
“The three-member legal panel sought 2-3 days of more time to submit its report in the violations of building by-laws, municipal laws and traffic rules in lieu of illegal construction of 1,246 buildings. The double bench of HC justice Rangon Mukhopadhyay and Deepak Raushan then fixed April 16 as the next date of hearing when it will hear the case in its totality,” Akhilesh Srivastava, senior HC advocate representing petitioner Rakesh Jha, told HT on Tuesday.
The court was hearing the PIL (2078/2018) by citybased civil rights activist Rakesh Jha.
The three-member legal panel consisting of senior advocates RN Sahay, Sudarshan Srivastava and Pandey Niraj Rai undertook on-site inspection of the buildings in question in Jamshedpur on Saturday again. Sahay told the court that they needed more time to file their final report.
“We pleaded with that the honourable court to consider the first interim report of the probe panel as final because no matter how many times the panel visits Jamshedpur and files reports, all of those will be the same. The panel inspected TK Complex in Bistupur regarding which all the facts are mentioned in our affidavit. TK Complex had to build three-storey public parking place but it built parking place in the basement, that too a private parking place. The drawing of TK Complex had been wrongly passed,” Srivastava told HT as telling the court on Tuesday.
“Tata Steel has given TK Complex 3,000 sq meter land on so-called sublease but only 1,000 sq meter construction was possible as per building by-laws. But the builder fraudulently constructed 3,000 sq meter along with illegal construction on road and B+LG+G+6 in place of G-3 plan. Besides, they have done deep boring and there’s no water harvesting system either,” Srivastava argued.
“When the court asked the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) lawyer about illegal constructions, he said sealing had been done in 21 of 46 identified buildings and he was not aware of where else illegal constructions were going on. We told the court that no sealing was done. The list of 46 buildings submitted by JNAC were sealed in 2011, which were removed later. The two new documents submitted by us have the locations and plots where 57 illegal constructions are being done. Our learned friend is misleading the court,” Srivastava said.