Srinagar, Sep 9: Jammu and Kashmir government has filed an affidavit in the High Court in response to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) petition over a piece of 17-kanal land which the later is refusing to vacate for the construction of a flyover.
 Sources told KNS the government has filed an affidavit in the High Court alleging that the BSNL has constructed a building illegally on its land near Rambagh. The government has also objected over erection of a mobile tower at the site by the BSNL.
 The state claims the land is its property and the BSNL has illegally occupied it.
 “The occupation of the land by the BSNL can impede the work on one and half kilometer proposed flyover from Jehanghir Chowk to Rambagh,” sources added.
 A top official of the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) said they had offered the BSNL to provide land at an alternate place. “However, they (BSNL) did not respond,” he said.
 The official said that there was no mention in revenue records that the land is owned by the BSNL. “In 1980 or 1981 the land was acquired by Postal and Telegraph department. But nowhere there is mention of the BSNL in the revenue records,” he added.
 “The BSNL is creating unnecessary problems in the construction of the flyover. According to revenue records there is 46 kanals of land in the area out of which 17 kanal had been acquired by the Postal and Telegraph department for the construction of residential colony decades back,” The Collector ERA and Additional DC Srinagar Mukhtar-ul-Aziz told KNS.
 “However, decades have passed since and no colony came up. But later the BSNL occupied the land and constructed a building and a tower there,” he alleged.
 Aziz revealed that the state government has not issued any NOC in favour of the BSNL for the construction which is necessary under Article 370.
 Meanwhile, sources told KNS that a team of Asian Development Bank officials is visiting the state in the last week of September to review the flyover project. KNS

Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST