Appoints two senior lawyers of B’pora for the job

KC News

Srinagar, Feb 28: Jammu and Kashmir High Court has taken notice of the hardships faced by the people of Bandipora owing to dilapidated Srinagar-Bandipora road and has decided to monitor the pace of work  on the road besides  few other road projects of the  valley.

The High Court on Monday has also appointed two senior lawyers of Bandipora as commissioners to supervise the work on Srinagar-Bandipora road. Advocate Bhat Fayaz and Advocate Nazir Ahmad Malik has been appointed as commissioners to oversee the work on road with concerned officials and has been asked to inform the court about the same.

The directions were passed by the court while hearing a Public Interest Litigation {PIL} filled by Civil Society Tral regarding Srinagar-Jammu Highway but later Srinagar-Bandipora road was also included in the PIL after the lawyers from Bandipora requested the court for the same.

A division bench comprising of Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Tashi Rabstan after hearing the matter on Monday expressed concern over the condition of roads and dull pace of work on road projects and directed to form four teams of lawyers to supervise different road projects.

The team of two Bandipora lawyers-Malik and Bhat were appointed as commissioners for Bandipora to Sumba road which comes under Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and will oversee the road with concerned officials and inform the court.

“The teams will oversee and inspect the condition of various roads in the valley so that the court be informed properly,” the court said while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Civil Society Tral.
The civil society had initially sought directions for repairing the Jammu-Srinagar highway, especially from Banihal to Srinagar and Srinagar to Baramulla. However, the court widened the scope of the petition to encompass roads in the valley after lawyers rasied the issues of various other road projects including Srinagar-Bandipora Road.

The Division Bench further said that a team of three lawyers comprising G N Sofi, Ashiq Hussain and Rizwan Bhat have been constituted as commissioners to oversee the road condition from Qazigund to Srinagar with the help of one officer from each RAMKI and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and report to the court by next date along with photographs.

With regard to Srinagar-Sopore road advocate B A Zargar and Shafkat Nazir have been appointed to assess the road condition.

Earlier in one of the status reports, J&K’s Inspector General of Police Traffic had attributed the traffic mess to dilapidated roads. “It is pertinent to mention here that whatever traffic mess taking place, it is because of the dilapidated roads, which were damaged due to the floods of (2014) and the (last years) rains have worsened the situation further,” the IGP had said, underlining that it affects the traffic police’s job to regulate traffic and avoid jams, causing inconvenience to motorists and general public.

The PIL which is currently being heard in the court seeks directions to the government to constitute a team of experts to have physical spot inspection and conduct survey of NH1A and other link roads of Kashmir valley to assess the gravity of dilapidated condition of the roads and submit a detailed report with complete remedial suggestions in a time bound period