Let us build or buy our plots: Green area land owners tell HP govt

“We bought lands much before the ban was ordered. No opportunity was given to us to represent our case as some of the plots didn’t have even a single tree or a bush. Yet,an impression has been created that permission to our buildings (within norms) will destroy the entire green belt,” said RL Jain,a retired insurance sector officer.

The CM,Jain says,assured the delegation of finding some solution by setting-up a committee of senior officials of the Town and Country Planning department,Shimla Municipal Corporation and making local MLA Suresh Bhardwaj its key public representative.

Earlier,Jain said,the “Green Area Sufferers’ Association” tried to convince the chief minister that the body was strongly for protection of the environment,and saving Shimla’s tree line. Some of the members are also environment activists and urban conservationists and will never play with the town’s green wealth.

“But,we are really pained to point out how mega commercial projects — DLF’s multi-crore controversial housing project for construction of super-quality flats,Jagson Ropeway project in core Shimla area at Jakhu hills,and Judicial complex,Chakkar have been sanctioned during the ban period,and these involve felling of hundreds of standing deodar and other trees,” Jain said.

The Association in its two-page memorandum submitted to Dhumal said most of the citizens had invested their money,saved from the salaries or other lawful incomes.

Had it been known that they would not be allowed to build houses even within the fixed building norms,no one would have risked their future.

“We therefore seek your indulgence. Instead of total ban,regulated use of the land and constructions should be allowed considering merits of each case. We are not against the ban but what we seek is the protection of our rights over the property and its use for which the same was bought,” it reads.

The final option the association suggested is that the government,if not ready to relax the ban for those who had bought properties before the 2000 notifications,should purchase the plots at market rates and compensate the suffers on the lines of “payment for environmental services”.