Jammu Kashmir Govt Shuns Rehabilitation Of Dal Dwellers With Eco-Hamlet Proposal

Srinagar: After the rehabilitation of over 1,800 families from Dal Lake in the city outskirts to maintain a clean lake for tourism, the Jammu and Kashmir government has shelved its rehabilitation programme and decided on in situ conservation of the lake without displacing its inhabitants.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who holds the Housing and Urban Development ministry portfolio, said in reply to a question by the PDP legislator Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi that 1,808 families have been successfully rehabilitated at the Rakh-i-Arth Housing Colony in Bemina. He said that these families were allotted free plots and received full compensation for their properties.

The rehabilitation programme was launched in 2009 under the Congress government, which was led by the late Manmohan Singh in 2009. Under this programme, 9,000 Dal dwellers were proposed to be shifted from the lake to the Rakh-i-Arth colony. But the programme did not go as proposed and landed into controversies and a probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which filed an FIR in 2022.

The majority of the dal dwellers also opposed the rehabilitation because they feared losing their livelihood, which comes from rowing shikaras for tourists and operating houseboats for tourist stays.

The chief minister said that based on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee and the Board of Directors (BoD) of the Authority, the earlier Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme for shifting Dal dwellers to Rakh-i-Arth has been replaced with an in-situ conservation model.

Under this model, Dal dwellers residing in hamlets within the lake are treated as part of the Dal ecosystem. “Instead of relocating them, the hamlets are proposed to be developed as eco-hamlets. However, hamlets where only a few structures require relocation shall be excluded from the In-situ Conservation Model,” Omar said.

The CM said that an “Integrated Management Plan of Dal-Nigeen Lake (PMDP)” has been proposed at an amount of Rs 212.38 crore by IIT Roorkee and is presently under the approval process under the Prime Minister’s Development Program, and is currently under process for formal approval by the competent authority through the Finance Department of the UT. Omar said that six hamlets inside Dal Lake are being developed for Rs 21.29 crore on a pilot basis under the ‘Eco-Development’ programme.

While Dal Lake dwellers have accepted this new concept of eco-development, they fear that if this programme can open doors for hotels and other buildings inside the lake, it will further deteriorate its water quality and shrink its area.

Tariq Patloo, a dal dweller, said that in the garb of eco-development, there might be construction of hotels and other buildings. “Renovation and modification of existing structures is acceptable, but no new construction should be allowed under this programme,” he said.

Ghulam Rasool, another dal dweller, also sounded apprehensive about the success and proper implementation of this new eco-concept. He said that these plans are not implemented transparently for the purposes which are stated, but “misused for corruption”.

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