The Lasjan Exclusion and the Crisis of Srinagar’s Master Plan

Urban planning in any civilized democracy is meant to be a vehicle for prosperity, equity, and inclusive development. But what happens when planning is weaponized against the very people it claims to serve? The case of Lasjan — a historically settled, strategically located, and economically vital area along NH-44 in Srinagar — represents a textbook example of how poorly thought-out urban plans can become instruments of suffering and stagnation.
The Srinagar Master Plan 2035, which was intended to chart a path toward modern, sustainable growth for the capital city, has inexplicably designated Lasjan’s only developable land as “City Forest”. This classification, detached from both reality and reason, has effectively choked the development rights of thousands of law-abiding landowners and residents, without acquisition, without compensation and most shockingly without consultation.
Let us be clear: there is no forest here. What exists on the stretch between Lasjan Bridge and Pahroo Chowk Both LHS & RHS is a bustling corridor hosting government-sanctioned industries, educational institutions, NHAI infrastructure, railway terminals, homes, shops, schools and more. This area has been developed over decades with the approval — tacit and explicit — of various government departments. And now, it is declared a green zone? On what basis? Whose land is this?
A Legal Injustice Masquerading as Planning
By categorizing Lasjan’s private, revenue-recorded land as “City Forest,” the Master Plan violates the very essence of land law and constitutional protection. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act mandates due process before land is frozen for public use. None was followed. No notifications, no acquisition, no compensation. Just a silent strangulation of property rights guaranteed under specific Article of the Constitution.
This is not merely an error. It is an administrative malpractice, and one that opens the government and planning authorities to legal liability for wrongful deprivation. If the State can expropriate people’s land-use rights without acquisition, where does that leave the rule of law?
Planning That Ignores People Cannot Be Called Planning
Lasjan is not a peripheral rural patch — it is now part of the Greater Srinagar notification area, an urbanizing belt with prime road and rail connectivity. Transit-oriented development, a central objective of the Master Plan, cannot be achieved while leaving out the very corridor that links the city to the rest of India via NH-44 and the Jammu–Baramulla Railway Line.
The planners claim they aim to reduce congestion, promote sustainability, and generate economic vitality. Yet, they block the only developable zone in the southern periphery, while simultaneously burdening the city core with unregulated vertical growth. This is not planning; it is bureaucratic & Political blindness with devastating human costs. At the onset areas Agricultural production got strangled by Destroyed Irrigation Systems, later it is brought under city forest Tag barring people to use it for self is a strategic economic strangulation for the area.
A Political System Must Deliver, Not Abandon
Governments are elected to ensure welfare, not distress. If plans and policies force citizens to either abandon their land or fight legal battles for basic rights, then the failure is not theirs — it is the State’s. A Master Plan that marginalizes the people of Lasjan is a betrayal of democratic planning, where transparency, participation, and justice must be the core pillars.
This is a call not just to town planners and administrators, but also to our political leadership: It is time to intervene and course-correct. This injustice must end, through zoning amendments, through recognition of facts on ground, and through inclusive engagement with affected residents.
My Commitment: Development with Justice
As a local citizen, stakeholder, and a Member of the Indian National Congress, I reaffirm my full commitment to the people of Lasjan and its adjoining areas. I will fight for their constitutional and developmental rights, and ensure this area is not left to bureaucratic & political neglect or flawed mapping.
We seek a future where Lasjan is not just protected, but developed as a modernized village, blending industrial progress with ecological responsibility, and creating sustainable livelihoods through planned housing and commercial infrastructure.
There must be no further ignorance, no further exclusion.
A Way Forward
The ongoing Short-Term Review of the Srinagar Master Plan 2035 offers a last window for correction. The Government must direct the Short-Term Review Committee to:
• Acknowledge representations already submitted;
• Conduct site-specific inspections with public participation;
• Remove the arbitrary “City Forest” tag from Lasjan’s developable land;
• Restore legitimate zoning rights to enable regulated, planned development in line with ecological and infrastructure norms.
Failing this, the government must be prepared to answer why it values flawed maps over living communities.
Conclusion
Lasjan’s case is not an isolated grievance — it is a symbol of how planning can go dangerously wrong when done without people, without facts, and without justice. If Srinagar is to truly become a sustainable and modern urban centre, it must not be built on the ruins of fairness.
It is high time the planners looked beyond their GIS screens and into the lives of those they claim to serve.
(The Author is Member Congress & Media Coordinator INC Kashmir. Feedback: [email protected])