Authorities have asked former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and a senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh and his wife Mamta Singh to demolish their bungalow near an Army ammunition depot in Nagrota area of Jammu within five days.
In a notice to Singh and his wife, by the Building Operations Controlling Authority (BOCA) of Jammu Development Authority (JDA), they have been asked to demolish the ‘illegal’ bungalow constructed without valid permission within five days, failing which “it shall be demolished and cost of removal shall be recovered from you as arrears of land revenue.”
Singh, who was deputy CM during the PDP-BJP government in J&K from 2015 to 2018, had shifted to the palatial bungalow with his family last year. The move came even as the High Court had in May 2018 directed the authorities to ensure “strict implementation” of a 2015 notification prohibiting any construction within 1,000 yards of defence works.
The construction of the bungalow near an Army ammunition depot in Ban village of Jammu’s Nagrota was started in 2017 when Singh was the deputy CM even as the Defence Ministry and the Army authorities had unsuccessfully invoked legal provisions to stop him.
The disputed bungalow has been reportedly raised by the BJP leader barely 580 yards from the ammunition depot of the army. The ‘buffer zone’ between Army installations and civilian areas is meant to serve as deterrence for terrorists and also provides safety for civilian areas.
However, Singh claimed that the case was politically motivated and he will challenge the demolition order in court.
“There are thousands of houses being constructed in Jammu even today, but a jihadi group has been after me,” he claimed. “They don’t look at Bathinda, how the houses of [National Conference leaders] Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have come up there. There should be a rule of law, but why am I being singled out?”
The 2,000-square-yard plot, registered in the name of Singh’s wife, Mamta Singh, is part of a large tract of land purportedly purchased by the senior BJP leaders who had floated a company called Himgiri Infrastructure Development Limited.
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