Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC), J&K, comprising academicians, former senior civil servants, jurists, reputed journalists, editors, and artists on Saturday castigated the newly-elected mayor of Srinagar, Junaid Azim Mattoo, for downplaying the importance of wetlands in Kashmir’s ecosystem.
In a statement here a GCC spokesman said, “The Group would like to remind him (Mattoo) that his statement, reflects a poor understanding of his role as mayor, a primary aspect whereof, is maintenance of a delicate balance between the development of the city and the preservation of ecology and environment, in accordance with the city master plan.”
“Humankind cannot claim to have an absolute right over the city resources, at the cost of and to the detriment of other species. Mattoo would be well advised to acquaint himself with the contents of the Ramsar convention, an international treaty to which India is a signatory, and which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, and stopping the encroachment and loss of wetlands,” the statement added.
NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY IN J&K BANK LTD
The GCC, while endorsing the public sentiment putting Jammu and Kashmir Bank on a high pedestal in the economic horizon, and treating it as a prominent symbol of Jammu and Kashmir, exhorted the Bank administration to promote complete transparency in Bank recruitment and its all day to day affairs, on its own, so that nobody gets a chance to question the bona fides of the Bank management and integrity of the officers at the helm of affairs. The Group asked the Bank to agree to be amenable to RTI Act so that all its affairs are open and transparent. The Group demanded that, as a first step towards transparency, the Bank must immediately make public, the names of all the major defaulters, who together constitute, nearly Rs 6000 crore, of its NPAs.
WANTON CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE FLOOD/RIVER BASIN
The GCC expressed deep anguish over continued constructions on the banks of river Jhelum. The Group reminded the law enforcing agencies that neither title to land nor permission from municipal authorities can legitimise any, construction that too a monstrous concrete structure, on the flood plan as it violates the doctrine of public trust and, therefore, the constitutional guarantees for the people.
The Group demanded immediate action by the concerned authorities and fora to stop this environmental disaster.’