120 illegal structures demolished near Dal Lake

Srinagar, Feb 11: Despite stiff resistance, the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) has demolished about 200 illegal structures in Chuntkul adjacent to world famous Dal Lake.

The biggest ever drive against 675 illegal constructions in the area will continue, official sources said today.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the LAWDA to remove all the buildings and other structures constructed in the Dal Lake and green belt area so that the famed water body in the city could be saved, the sources said.

The court has also directed that all the encroachments in Chuntkul, which is being used as outflow channel for the lake, be removed and the affected families be rehabilitated properly at an alternative place by February this year, they added.

The officials of LAWDA, Irrigation and Flood Control and Srinagar Municipal Corporation carried the demolition drive in the presence of large number of police personnel.

The affected people said that they have been living in the area for the past 30 years and now authorities have failed to provide any alternative land of plot to them.

However, officials of the LAWDA said all the 211 inhabitants of the area, who have been identified during a survey conducted in 1989, have already been alloted plots by the government.

The High Court has declared other constructions as illegal and directed the authorities to remove them, they said.

The channel, also known as Chinar Bagh, was one of the main tourist hubs in the past. It was being used as important route to enter the Dal Lake.

UNI