SVO arrests 5 SMC officials for allowing illegal constructions

Five municipal officials were arrested today by the Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) for allegedly allowing illegal constructions in the state's summer capital.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation's (SMC) enforcement officer Mohammad Ashraf Warsi, ward officers Fayaz Ahmad Khan and Bilal Ahmad Baba, and building inspectors Urfan Hussain Joo and Bashir Ahmad Bhat, have been arrested, an SVO official said here.
A case has been registered against the officials and some other employees of the municipal corporation, he said, adding the arrests were an outcome of a surprise check by the SVO's engineering wing.
It has surfaced that they allowed the construction of a hotel behind the Khyber Hospital by violating norms and in connivance with its owner, the official said.

He said against the approved height of 45 feet and area of 2,685 sq feet, the construction's plinth was found to be 67 feet high and in an area of 3,692.50 sq ft, with some other alterations.
The first floor was approved for stilt parking but the same has been violated by way of changing it into a restaurant and reception, the official said.
Besides, they also allowed construction of a double-storey servants' quarter without any permission for "pecuniary" gains, he said.
The matter is being investigated, the official added.