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Court panel visits shooting range site

Special Correspondent

Lawyer challenges the construction with the plea that two plots are river belt and forest land

JAIPUR: The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court on Wednesday visited the Jhalana area of the Pink City where the Jaipur Development Authority plans to construct a shooting range. The visit follows a directive of the Supreme Court in connection with a petition filed by advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari in April this year challenging the State Government's decision to establish a shooting range over a river course and a piece of land forming part of a reserve forest.

Committee member Valmik Thapar visited Todi Ramzanipura village where the proposed shooting range -- foundation for which was laid by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on December 8, 2005, the second anniversary of her Government -- is coming up. Senior officials of the State Forest Department, Tejvir Singh and A.S.Brar, JDA official S.K.Pancholi and petitioners, Mr.Bhandari and Girdhari Singh Bafna, accompanied Mr.Thapar as he went round the area, examining the river course and the Jhalana Park nearby.

The petition has challenged the construction of the shooting range, proposed in an area of 68 bighas at an expense of Rs.20 crores, with the plea that two plots, Khasra No. 9 and Khasra No. 14, which form part of the project, are river belt and forest land, respectively. The "jamabandhi" (land records) with the district shows 67 bighas in Khasra No. 9 as river belt. The notification of November 21, 1961, shows Khasra No. 14 as reserve forest under the Jaipur Forest Act, 1939, as well as under Section 20 of the Rajasthan Forest Act, 1953.

However as per JDA records, Khasra No.14 has been split into Khasra No.134, which is recorded as river, and Khasra No.134/350 as "banjar" (wasteland), which the petitioner has termed as "illegal act" as the final authority on land records is the Collector (Land Records).

This was the first field visit by the Committee in the case after holding hearings on the issue in May, June and July in New Delhi. Mr. Thapar refused to make any observations to the media on the occasion of his visit.

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