Beneficiaries include former ministers of state, retired civil servants and politicians.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration posted the list of beneficiaries under the Roshni Act on its website on Monday. Beneficiaries include former ministers of state, retired civil servants and politicians.
Among those who received land under the now-eliminated Act are Haseeb Drabu, former Finance Minister and former leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); KK Amla, businessman and leader of Congress; Nighat Pandit, wife of retired IAS officer Shafi Pandit; Syed Akhoon of the National Conference; MY Khan, former president of J&K Bank; and Sujjad Kichloo, former minister of the National Conference.
Also read: HC orders CBI to investigate Roshni’s land scam at J&K
In a related development, the Central Bureau of Investigation has registered another case in relation to the ₹ 25,000 crore “Roshni” scam, this time against the then Jammu district collector and others for alleged illegal concession of ownership of parcels of land.
The case was initiated by the then Jammu and Kashmir Watch Organization in 2014. It named Deputy Commissioner Hirdesh Kumar Singh and one Bashir Ahmed as defendants, as well as unknown officials from the Jammu Revenue Department.
According to the Watch Organization, the broader accusation concerned irregularities in the implementation of the Land Law of the States of Jammu and Kashmir (granting of property to occupants), also known as the Roshini Law, which has now been declared null and void. One of the cases under scrutiny was about the granting of property to Bashir Ahmed involving 63 kanals and 15 marlas.
The then district collector, Mr. Singh, had ordered the award of the property to the beneficiary in October 2007. Subsequently, the land was transferred to his name under the category of agriculture. During verification, officials found that a portion of the land transferred to Bashir Ahmed did not fall into that category. Another part was not shown on paper.
This is the fifth case recorded by the IWC, following a Superior Court directive to investigate the alleged scam.
Illegally occupied
It alleged that hundreds of acres of valuable forests and government land had been illegally occupied, usurped, and usurped by influential politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats, and judicial officials from across the state, under the law passed in 2001.
The legislation was introduced in 2000 by the then Minister of Finance in the National Conference government. He proposed that property rights be granted to people who, without any authorization, possessed State lands until 1990, upon payment of the cost equivalent to the market rate in force in 1990.
The government was expected to receive more than 25 billion rupees as a regularization fee, which would be used to generate power through hydroelectric projects.
In 2005, as alleged, the PDP government relaxed the cut-off year to 2004 and then the congressional government pushed it further until 2007.
It is alleged that in 2007, rules were formulated allowing ownership of invaded agricultural land at almost no cost, while a large discount was offered in the case of urban land parcels.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, in a 2014 report, had stated that only ₹ 76 crore had been obtained from the transfer of invaded lands between 2007 and 2013, compared to the target of around ₹ 25,000 crore.
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