Minister for Horticulture, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Syed Basharat Bukhari today directed the Power Development Department for making ‘Bijli Adalats’ functional within a fortnight in the state so that a viable dispute resolution forum can be made available to the people.The Minister passed these directions while convening a meeting to review the status of court cases in the Power Development Department, here today.Minister of State for Power Development Asiea Naqash was also present in the meeting.“An appropriate forum namely ‘Bijli Adalat’ has been made available for the people where they can bring their power dispute cases. These should be made functional within the fortnight so that people can approach this forum rather than going to courts, which burdens the judiciary and causes unnecessary lags in proper functioning of the department”, the Bukhari asserted.Taking note of the various PDD cases that are pending before the courts including several compensation cases, the Minister said that genuine cases for compensation claims should be redressed and just compensation awarded to the beneficiaries.With regards to compensation cases for losses on fruit bearing trees due to power infrastructure development, the Minster directed the PDD to get assessment done for these trees from Horticulture Department and release due compensation to the beneficiaries.
The Minster also asked the department to take compassionate view on compensations cases for loss of life/injury in line of duty besides asking the department to ensure that line workers take adequate safety measures and use necessary safety equipment during field work.Directing the department to pursue all cases for speedy disposal, the Minister asked for prioritizing cases that lead to undue delays in the implementation of public welfare schemes and initiatives, ultimately causing difficulties to common masses.Bukhari also directed the PDD to compile details on all cases pending before various Courts with special focus on cases leading to infrastructure development delays like construction of receiving stations, grid stations, laying of transmissions etc and submit a comprehensive report to his office including details on presumptive losses, wasteful expenditures and delays in expenditure as a result of several pending litigations.Among others Commissioner/ Secretary Power Development Department Hirdesh Kumar, Secretary Law Abdul Majid Bhat, Director Litigation Kashmir besides concerned officers from the office of Chief Engineer EM&RE Kashmir, S&O Srinagar, Commercial and Survey Srinagar, Procurement and Purchases J&K Srinagar, Projects J&K Srinagar and law department attended the meeting.