Srinagar, Dec 1: Something what is popular as Halla Bol, elsewhere in India, has worked in this summer Capital at-least in a bid to prevent further commercialization of residential colony: Karan Nagar. The residents of this area have shown how administration could be prompted to check violation of building permission norms.
 Fed up of commercialization of this once plush residential area with amply wide roads and parks, the residents knocked the doors of the SMC Commissioner, Sheikh Mushtaq pleading that a multistoried building which has come up near Kak Sarai was to be utilized as a commercial complex, against the permission for running a hostel.
 The locals remained so  strong footed that the Chief Enforcement Officer, SMC found no options but to come up with a public notification in local dailies that misuse of the building wouldn’t be allowed adding that anyone making deal for any business venture would be doing it at their own risk and responsibility.
 The residents under the banner Karan Nagar Welfare Committee complained that successive regimes had slept over the brazen violation of Master Plan, which paved way for construction of allegedly illegal shopping complexes that too without any parking lots.
 “All this has left this area in a mess and we won’t tolerate any further plunder of this area,” a delegation of the residents told Greater Kashmir.
 The irony, the locals said, was that most of the major violations had come up literally under the nose of the SMC’s office in the past two decades.
 “Look at these shopping malls which have come up just outside the SMC office and have no parking lots,” said a government official pleading anonymity.
 About the Kak Sarai building, the locals said its proposed utilization as commercial complex has upped the morale of land brokers who eye to buy more houses in the area to reconstruct them into malls.
 “We have faced enough of vandalization of our residential colony. We won’t tolerate it any further but will move Court to fight our cause,” the locals said.
 The Halla Bol has worked at a time when government is all set to overhaul its much criticized Master Plan for 2000-2021, which due to its allegedly ill planning remained confined to papers alone while successive regimes slept over the issue.
 Senior separatist leader Javed Amed Mir said successive regimes have “mauled the face of the City under a deep rooted conspiracy” adding that people need to have to “unified voice if Srinagar is to be saved.” "City is being choked and squeezed," he added
 Pertinently last year a similar move was cashed by residents of Aloocha Bagh to prevent land grab.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 2 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST