Apni Party President Altaf Bukhari Friday appealed the authorities to provide relief to Srinagar residents by extending the validity of building construction permissions which were put on halt due to COVID-19 lockdown.
A statement of Apni Party issued here quoted Bukhari as saying that the building construction permissions issued by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) were put on halt by the authorities during COVID-19 lockdown.
“The people were asked not to carry any kind of construction during COVID-19 lockdown which lasted several months. Thus, many people could not complete the constructions due to suspension of all kind of activities during the lockdown,” he said.
Bukhari said that the government had already announced discount for people of Jammu and Kashmir in water and electricity bills due to COVID-19 lockdown.
“It will be in the interest of justice to provide relief to Srinagar residents by extending validity of building construction permissions so that people can complete the constructions which otherwise remained suspended due to COVID-19 lockdown,” he said.
Bukhari said that he had also taken up the matter with the concerned authorities including Srinagar Mayor and sought extension in the validity of building permissions.
“SMC has said that it will treat COVID-19 lockdown period as a ‘grace period’ for building permissions granted by it in the summer capital and extend their validity. However, no such formal order or circular has been issued by it,” he said.
Bukhari said scores of families were worried about the expiry of validity of permissions granted to them for constructions of residential houses and other structures and that the SMC had banned all sorts of constructions in March 2020 among other measures to contain the virus.