The sister of the president of the National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, and two prominent hoteliers, including a leader of Congress, are on the second list of 130 people who have taken advantage of the land under the Roshni Act, now discarded. According to the new list uploaded to the website of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, most of the beneficiaries, including a former bureaucrat and his wife, legalized their residential places under the scheme, while there are also names of dozens of entrepreneurs who obtained the property. . of your commercial buildings.
This is the second list of beneficiaries issued by the divisional administration in accordance with the Oct. 9 directive from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that declared the Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered an IWC investigation into the award. of lands under this law. The administration uploaded a list of 35 beneficiaries that included former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, some of his relatives and top hoteliers, and a former bureaucrat.
Rejecting the government’s claims that its party leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah had invaded land in Jammu, North Carolina said it is considering legal recourse to challenge the “baseless and unwarranted allegations” that have been made against them.
In a statement, a party spokesman said that the administration’s allegations have reached “an unpleasant level” and noted that the party’s vice president, Omar Abdullah, never owned land or a house in Jammu or Srinagar and was left with his father.
The second list included the names of Congressional leader KK Amla and Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya, both prominent businessmen and hoteliers, as well as former bureaucrat Mohammad Shafi Pandit and his wife. Suriya Abdullah, sister of Farooq Abdullah, was also named among the beneficiaries who obtained ownership of a plot of more than three kanal under residential use.
According to the list, the land had been approved by the authorities, but she still had to pay fees of 1 million rupees. Nor had he been sent any notification from the time the land was approved in his name. On November 1, the Union Territory administration 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 existing occupants.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina spokesperson said: “The malicious nature of the allegations is exposed by the fact that even though Mr. Omar Abdullah does not own the land, he actually lives with his father in Jammu as it does in Srinagar. To exaggerate Berserk, however, his name has been added to the list and published by the government. The fact that the DDC and ULB elections are underway responds to the timing and motive aspect of the accusations and it is not necessary to add much about it. “
He clarified that all claims regarding any encroachment on the construction of a house in Jammu by his party chairman “are unequivocally denied” and Farooq Abdullah’s land has nothing to do with the Roshni Law. The statement comes a day after the Jammu Division Commissioner released a list of people who had allegedly invaded the forest lands. The administration claimed that the house in Jammu belonging to Farooq Abdullah and his son was invaded.
However, he made it clear that it had nothing to do with the Roshni Act, which was dismissed by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The spokesperson said that all questions related to the land in question would receive an appropriate answer when requested by the concerned authorities.
With regard to the party’s office premises in Srinagar and Jammu, it is claimed that they were in the party’s possession on lease and in the enactment of the Roshni Act, the National Conference had also taken advantage of the plan, the spokesperson said. . Without providing an opportunity to hear from any of the beneficiaries (including the party), the law was declared unconstitutional by the high court, leaving “thousands of our citizens, who had sought bonafly the benefit of the scheme, are now virtually deprived of their home and home through no fault of their own. “
The party expressed surprise that the administration, instead of challenging the high court’s decision, “abdicated its duty and in an unusual manner promptly sought execution of the sentence.” “It is surprising that while similar acts of converting from leased property to freehold with similar conversion charges are in vogue in other parts of the country, including Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra, the same legislative exercise in JK was declared unconstitutional and the administration decided to do nothing about it, “he said.
The spokesperson said the party has sought the necessary legal advice and is in the process of taking appropriate legal measures to safeguard its interests.
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 and the revenue department have been asked to come up with a plan to recover these statutory lands.
“The Chief Secretary of the Government, Department of Revenue will also resolve the modalities and the plan to evict the invaders from said State Lands and recover the lands of the State in a period of six months. The Chief Secretary of the Government, Department of Revenue will determine the modalities to handle the money received by these lands after the annulment, “the JK government had said in a statement.
According to the order, the full identities of influential people, including ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, police officers and businessmen, their relatives or people who have benami for them, who have obtained benefits under the Roshni Law, they will be made public within a period of one month. The Roshni Law was enacted in 2001 with the dual objective of generating resources to finance energy projects and granting property rights to occupants of state lands. It initially envisaged the granting of property rights of around 20.55 lakh kanals (102,750 hectares) to its occupants, of which only 15.85% of the land was approved for the granting of property rights.
The plan 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 the high court that suspended proceedings under the law and also ordered that none of the occupants had been conferred on the property rights, these lands will be sold and no constructions may be built on said lands.
However, in 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General had estimated that only Rs 76 million had been raised from the transfer of invaded lands between 2007 and 2013.
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