Banquet halls contributing to traffic mess

Barring a few, most of the banquet halls in Jammu and its peripherial areas don’t have ample parking space because of which guests park their vehicles by the roadsides, often leading to massive traffic jams during the marriage season. But there is none in the district administration to take a suo moto notice of the inconvenience being caused to people by these banquet halls. One such banquet hall is in the heart of city at Kachi Chawni and a few others are on the lower Akhnoor road, especially at Paloura and in Muthi and Domana areas. There are illegal banquet halls also which are mostly operational in Jammu and Samba areas under the otherwise ‘watchful’ eyes of the agencies concerned. If sources are to be believed, no permission has been granted for the construction at least three banquet halls in Vijaypur are of Samba. Though notices were served on their managements from time to time by the agencies concerned, there was no follow up action. As per the notices, they were asked to remove the illegal constructions within five days. In case they fail to do so, the authority concerned had warned that the enforcement wing would do it on its own and the cost of removal shall be recovered from the managements as arrears of land revenue. A lot of time has passed since then but no legal action has so far been taken. One banquet hall was alleged to have come up in violation of norms at Udheywala on the Jammu city outskirts. Notices have been served on its management too but of no use. The delay in taking action against them gives strength to the allegations that the authorities concerned first allow the illegal constructions to come up with impunity from law and then issue notices for formality sake only. These notices are normally issued after the construction is complete in all respects. It has been alleged that these banquet halls were raised illegally in connivance with those who were then at the helm of affairs. That is why no action is being taken against them. So deep rooted is the nexus between the officials concerned and the banquet hall owners that despite the issuance of notices and sealing orders, the banquet halls are still operational.

Since the constructions are illegal, development charges were also not deposited in the government exchequer. This way, the government has suffered a loss of revenue. Not only this, most of the banquet halls in the twin districts don’t have parking space as a result of big traffic jams are witnessed outside them during marriage season, causing inconvenience to general public.

This is highly condemnable and regrettable too as the authorities concerned have so far not bothered to act against their managements or order their closure. Exerting their authority, the officials concerned can at least ask them to keep their business activity suspended till they arrange ample parking space for the visiting guests. There should be no further delay in this regard.