Former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have been named by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on a list alleging that their residential home in Jammu is built on illegally owned land, a charge denied by the father-son duo.
The administration of the union territory as ordered by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to make public lands ceded under the controversial Roshni land plan, as it was discarded by a court, came out with the list of beneficiaries. On Tuesday, he came out with a list of those who had allegedly invaded lands other than those granted under the scheme.
The list also highlighted that the headquarters of its National Conference in Srinagar and Jammu were legalized under the controversial Roshni Law.
By displaying the lists on its website, one that shows invaded lands outside of the Roshni Law, the Jammu divisional administration revealed that the Abdullahs’ residential home, built on an area of nearly an acre in Sunjwan, is invaded state land. (physically invaded but not shown on revenue record) other than Roshi Law.
Reacting to the new list, the party’s vice president, Omar Abdullah, said: “The news that he attributes to the sources that Dr. Farooq Abdullah is a beneficiary of the Roshni Law is completely false and is spread with malicious intent. Their houses in Jammu and Srinagar have nothing to do with this law.
“Dr. Farooq Abdullah has NOT made use of the Roshni Plan for his residence in Srinagar or Jammu and anyone who says otherwise is lying. The fact that they are using fountains to plant this story shows that it has no legs to stand on, ”said Omar.
Senior Abdullah’s house was built in the late 1990s for which lumber from government warehouses was allocated, which is issued only after providing all income records, officials familiar with the matter said.
Read more | The J&K government annuls the Roshni Law, to recover land in six months
Previously, three former ministers, several politicians and a former bureaucrat were on the list of beneficiaries who have used land under the now-discarded Roshni Act or invaded state lands for residential or commercial purposes.
The lists were made public by the divisional administration, both in the Kashmir and Jammu regions, in accordance with the October 9 directive of the high court that declared the Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered an investigation of the CBI on the allocation of land under this law.
By publishing the first list of 35 beneficiaries that included former finance minister Haseeb Drabu and some top-tier hoteliers and a former bureaucrat, the divisional administration of Kashmir showed that the National Conference venue, several hotels and more than a dozen Commercial buildings in prime locations in and around Lal Chowk have been regularized under the law.
Most of the beneficiaries, including Drabu and his wife, have a Kanal of land for residential use, while the leader of Congress, KK Amla, owns the Broadway Hotel and the prominent businessman Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya owns a house of guests and a hotel.
On November 1, the Union Territory government canceled all land transfers that took place under the JK (Acquisition of Property from Occupants) State Land Act 2001, also known as the Roshni Act. , by virtue of which 2.5 thousand hectares of land would be transferred to the existing occupants.
The chief secretary and department of revenue have been asked to develop a plan to reclaim large tracts of state lands conferred by law. According to the superior court order, a total of 6,04,602 kanals (75,575 acres) of state land had been regularized and transferred to the occupants. This included 5,71,210 kanals (71,401 acres) in Jammu and 33,392 kanals (4174 acres) in Kashmir province.
“The Chief Secretary of the government, the Department of Revenue will also elaborate the modalities and the plan to evict the invaders from said state land and recover the state land in a period of six months. The Main Secretary of the Government, Department of Revenue, will elaborate the modalities to handle the money received by these lands after the annulment, ”the JK government had said in a statement.
Under the order, the full identities of influential people, including ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, policemen and businessmen, their relatives or people who have benami for them, who have obtained benefits under the Roshni Act will be made public within of a period of one month.
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Mohammad Shafi Pandit and his wife own two residential houses in the city’s prime location, the document says, adding that a total of more than eight acres of land were transferred to the beneficiaries, who also included several other Drabu relatives.
In the Jammu region, the Jammu divisional administration displayed two separate lists on its website: one related to the Roshi Law and the other showing lands invaded outside of the Roshni Law.
Among the beneficiaries of the invaded state lands of approximately three and a half acres in Bahu Tehsil (Physical Invasion but not shown in the Revenue Register), the list included former ministers Sajjad Kitchloo (National Conference) and Abdul Majid Wani (Congress ), North Carolina leaders. Syed Akhoon and Aslam Goni and former president of JK Bank MY Khan.
Another list of 383 people, belonging to the majority community, was shown in possession of more than 483 acres of invaded land in Maria Mandrian tehsil of Jammu district, while 854 beneficiaries had possession of more than 370 acres in South Jammu and another 15 in West Jammu.
Under the Roshni Law, two retired police superintendents, Shiv Kumar Singh and Mani Lal, were among the ten beneficiaries in Bahu tehsil.
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The list included government employees and businessmen and the total land involved is more than five acres. Up to 419 people, mostly farmers belonging to the majority community, have been granted powers of 405 acres of agricultural land under the Roshni law in Khour tehsil and another 97 in Nazool tehsil over more than four acres of land, the list highlighted.
The Jammu and Kashmir State Lands Act (Concession of Property to Occupants) was enacted in 2001 with the dual objective of generating resources to finance energy projects and granting property rights to occupants of state lands.
The law popularly called the Roshni scheme initially provided for the granting of property rights of around 20.55 lakh Kanals (102,750 hectares) to the occupants, of which only 15.85% of the land was approved for the granting of rights. proprietary.
The scheme was finally repealed by then-Governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.
Amid reports of its widespread misuse, all of the legislation was challenged in JK’s superior court, in a public interest litigation, in which the court, in addition to suspending proceedings under said law, also ordered that none of the occupiers, having received the property rights, sell these lands nor can they build constructions on such lands.
In 2014, however, the Comptroller and Auditor General estimated that only Rs 76 million had been raised from the transfer of invaded lands between 2007 and 2013.
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