Horticulture depart under scanner over shop allotment bungling

 PS Bali

Jammu Tawi, December 26

Making scope of bungling in the allotment of shop sites at Fruit and Vegetable Market, Udhampur, some elements in the Horticulture department not only cheated deserving applicants by allotting the same in the name of their kiths and kin in huge ‘ratio of 8-10 shops to per bogus person’, but also breached the stay orders of the high court over the shifting of the site. Despite the stay orders over the shifting of the site, horticulture department along with some influential persons, to cover up their fishy business, shifted the site taking advantage of long holidays to deter any claim of municipality over the site.

Following the allegations of the aggrieved applicants over the bungling in allotment of shop sites to fake individuals, high court had issued a stay orders on any further proceeding and December 29 was scheduled to submit orders, “but in the wake of holiday on December 25, horticulture department along with some influential people shifted the market,” said applicants.

They also alleged that on asking Area Marketing Officer (AMO), VK Langer, “he denied any such shift in his knowledge”, quoting AMO they said that AMO claims that he had information about the shifting but “no official document reached to him”.

Aggrieved applicants alleged that the ‘horticulture department also ignored call of municipality’ to discontinue any process, as the area was under municipality and many of the fake applicants were ‘without Municipality license’.

The cunningness of the horticulture department is as such that the allotted persons are not provided with any possession letter which is the basic for registering possession as per law, “even though shops were allotted to bogus applicants without any demand draft,” said applicant, adding that President Roshan Lal and AMO, VK Langer are working hand in gloves with horticulture department and have allotted shops to five to six persons of their families, moreover ‘all fake persons foray Market without paying any cost’.

According to aggrieved applicants, ‘only 35 people in the area possesses municipality issued license', whereas horticulture department has allocated around 85 shops, which make this case amply clear.

“When only 35 people of the area have municipality license then from where horticulture department has allotted 85 shops, which mean 8-10 shops to per bogus person” said one of the aggrieved applicants, adding that notwithstanding having license, many of the license holders are also deprived from allocation and the interesting part is that no applicant from Jammu was entertained.

They alleged that the allocation was arbitrarily and no mentioned procedure at the time of notification was followed, “even though no Area Marketing Officer verified any license or any applicant”. 

Following the allegations, horticulture minister, Sham Lal Sharma, yesterday instructed a high level probe into the matter and assured aggrieved applicants that if any body found misappropriating in allocation; same would be taken hard handed.