Rajouri’s Bela Colony tragedy: Crores thrown into the river for their personal interest by tainted officers of the Rajouri administration for constructing illegal structures, Locals demand a high-level inquiry

Rajouri’s Bela Colony tragedy: Crores thrown into the river for their personal interest by tainted officers of the Rajouri administration for constructing illegal structures, Locals demand a high-level inquiry

SALIL RAINA

(POONCH TODAY NEWS)

POONCH/RAJOURI: Many times, the people of Rajouri were seen saying that the government mostly blessed the Rajouri administration with competent officers over the years, but the recent Bela Colony tragedy has exposed the vision of those officers who remained at the helm of affairs, and some of them used to press their paid agents in the media and private NGOs into service for building their positive image for their future career benefits.

They were also accused of scripting big land-related frauds in different areas of Rajouri, including some big government projects, through their silent and tactful strategy, which ultimately gave them huge favours, but the recent tragedy in Rajouri district’s Bela Colony has shaken the inner consciousness of everybody, as those people who built illegal structures in the “Red Zone” areas of the Bela Colony have lost everything. As per the statement of a local journalist of Rajouri, namely Amit Sharma, huge blunders were committed by some officers of the Rajouri administration by throwing taxpayers’ money into the Rajouri River by illegally constructing a bus stand on land that was their ancestral property, for which they have been fighting the legal battle for a long time. He alleged that several shops built illegally at the Bela Colony bus stand were sold at a high cost, nearly in crores, by some officials of the Rajouri administration. He also demanded an inquiry to find out how the revenue record of their ancestral land was changed in favour of others by the officials of the revenue department and allowed illegal constructions. He also alleged that after the anti-encroachment drive of 2018, the illegal constructions were permitted, raising significant doubts about the intentions of the Rajouri administration’s officers. The senior journalist further said that he raised the issue many times and advised the people not to construct their illegal structures in the “Red Zone”, but the administration and officers of the Rajouri municipality harassed him for long. He said that the Bela colony also witnessed a flood-like situation in 2014, despite the area being allowed to be occupied by some tainted officers of the Rajouri administration by throwing taxpayers’ money in several crores, for which a high-level inquiry is needed from the government. It is important to mention that most areas of Rajouri experienced significant devastation; however, the young deputy commissioner, Abhishek Sharma, demonstrated his capabilities during the crisis by visiting every affected area and making efforts to address the grievances of the people. The level of devastation caused in Rajouri was so huge that even the office of DC Rajouri suffered damage. Although it’s very difficult to counter the aggression of nature, the way DC Rajouri Abhishek handled the situation by winning the public trust through his one-to-one communication with the affected people has won him huge public sympathy. However, the issue raised by a local journalist of Rajouri, Amit Sharma, is a most genuine issue and needs the immediate attention of the J&K UT government, and those officers who played mischievous roles during their tenure in Rajouri need to be taken to task for playing with the innocent lives of the people of Bela Colony, who have lost their everything in the flood tragedy. Locals demand a high-level inquiry against those officers who threw taxpayers’ money into the Rajouri River by allowing unplanned and illegal constructions in the Bela Colony area, those who changed revenue records and allowed illegal constructions, and those who remained masterminds of other big scams. They deserve a befitting retribution from the government for backstabbing the public trust for their self-interest. It’s high time for the government to formulate a high-level policy for the different “Red Zone” areas of J&K, district-wise, for saving the precious and innocent lives from future floods. The government should book the tainted officers who played a bad role for their self-interest at the cost of risking innocent lives from flood-related disasters in the Bela colony and other parts of the Rajouri District.