As of November 23, the government of Jammu and Kashmir began publishing the names of beneficiaries under the now-discarded Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Acquisition of Property from Occupants) Act, popularly known as the Roshni Act.
It created a political storm in Kashmir. The first list named four leaders of the National Conference, a former leader of the People’s Democratic Party, two leaders of Congress and a battery of former Muslim bureaucrats and businessmen from Kashmir. More lists would follow, naming the most prominent Kashmiri political families and high-level leaders, especially those of the Popular Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration, a collective of mostly Kashmiri parties.
The Union Territory administration began removing the beneficiary lists just days before Jammu and Kashmir went to the polls to establish new district development councils, the third tier of local government. It is a triangular contest between the Gupkar Alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the newly formed Apni Party. While the Apni Party spokesperson was found on one of the lists, no BJP leader has been named so far.
A ‘land scam’
Enacted in 2001, the Roshni Law had proposed transferring ownership of state lands to their occupants for a fee determined by the government. The money from these transfers was used to finance energy projects in Jammu and Kashmir, hence the nickname “Roshni Law”.
For years, transactions under the law have been plagued with allegations of corruption and have been challenged in court. In popular opinion, land allocations under the law favored political elites and powerful officials. However, various allocations were also made to poor families who had occupied state lands for years.
In October, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir declared the Roshni “completely unconstitutional, contrary to the law and untenable.” All transactions permitted by law were considered suspicious. The court ordered an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into what it called a “land scam” worth 25 billion rupees, the total amount of money obtained from transactions under the law. The court did not stop at state lands transferred under the Roshni Act. He instructed the government to reclaim all state lands that were under unauthorized occupation.
Weeks after the ruling, the government of Jammu and Kashmir declared the law null and void and announced that it would begin to recover the state lands transferred to Roshni beneficiaries in a “time-limited manner”. So far, the names of 3,131 beneficiaries have been made public, of which 2,157 are from the Jammu region. The government also issued notices to suspected invaders of state land, the details of which are posted on the websites of divisional commissioners.
But how exactly are Kashmir’s leading politicians and parties involved?
The Abdullahs face charges
Among those named state land invaders on the divisional commissioner’s website are Farooq and Omar Abdullah, both leaders of the National Conference and former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah is president of the Gupkar Alliance.
According to official data, father and son illegally occupy 7 kanals and 7 marlas, or 0.91 acres, in the Sunjwan area of Jammu. Farooq Abdullah’s house in Jammu is built here. The government claims that these are state lands that are “physically invaded but not shown in the income records.”
The National Conference was quick to deny the allegations. “The malicious nature of the allegations is exposed by the fact that, although Mr. Omar Abdullah does not own the land, he lives with his father in Jammu as he does in Srinagar,” the party said in a statement on 25 of November. “To exaggerate, however, his name has been added to the list and published by the government.”
The party suggested that the “timing and motive” of the charges were driven by the ongoing elections. But he added that “all questions related to the land in question will be adequately answered when requested by the concerned authorities.”
Meanwhile, the party’s two main offices, Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan in Jammu and the Nawa-i-Subah Complex in Srinagar, allegedly occupy state lands allocated under the Roshni Act. Each office is spread over 3 kanals and 16 marlas or 0.475 acres. This is not a new revelation. As early as 2014, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had noted that 0.475 acres of state land in Srinagar was allocated to the Nawa-i-Subah Trust under the Roshni scheme. The National Conference claimed that both offices had been leased by the party before it decided to apply for the property under the Roshni scheme.
The party also attacked the decision of the government of Jammu and Kashmir not to challenge the high court ruling on the Roshni Law, which had been introduced by the government of Farooq Abdullah. “Thousands of our citizens, who had sought in good faith the benefit of the plan, are now virtually deprived of their home and home through no fault of their own and the administration instead of challenging the Superior Court’s decision, abdicated their duty and of a manner of unusual speed sought the implementation of the Judgment, “said the party’s statement issued on November 25.
He also questioned why similar laws were not being declared “unconstitutional” in other states. “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 at J&K was declared unconstitutional and the administration he chose to do nothing about it, ”the statement said.
The PDP party office
The People’s Democratic Party, the other major pro-India party in Kashmir, was also on the invader list.
According to a list posted on the Jammu Divisional Commissioner’s website, the party’s office in the Sunjwan area encroaches on 3 kanal, or 0.375 acres, of state land. The list also named Talib Choudhary, leader of the People’s Democratic Party, for allegedly encroaching on 2 kanals (0.25 acres) of state land in the Channi Rama area of Jammu district. Choudhary, according to official details, is using this land for his residence.
People’s Democratic Party leader and former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, vigorously refuted the allegations about the party’s office. “[H]There is a fact check as he will continue to sell lies, ”he tweeted. “Attached are photos of PDP’s Jammu office. It is a government building for which PDP pays a monthly rent. Dare you do a primetime show on how BJP built the luxurious party headquarters in Delhi? “In another tweet two days later, he put income from the rent paid by the party to the government for the offices in Jammu and Srinagar.
“If the BJP is so serious about land grabbing, it should go after the big fish, not the poor who don’t have even 5 marlas of land in their possession,” he said at a press conference on 29 February. November. sent to the poor. “
A room with a due?
Another prominent name on Roshni’s lists is Haseeb Drabu, a former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister who was also a member of the People’s Democratic Party. According to official data, Drabu, his mother and two brothers obtained a kanal or 0.125 acres each of land in the elegant Gogji Bagh area of Srinagar.
Drabu wrote a detailed defense of the transactions in the English daily Greater Kashmir. According to him, in 1956, his maternal grandfather had purchased a house on half an acre of land in Gogji Bagh for his daughter, Drabu’s mother. But his grandfather bought leasehold rights, or “nazool”, instead of property rights, for 56,000 rupees. Each year, they paid the government a land rent of Rs 40.
After the lease expired in 1980, Drabu writes, his mother repeatedly petitioned the government for an extension, without success. Finally, the family applied for regularization under the Roshni scheme in 2004. It was granted in 2007. “Under the Roshni Law, we were treated on a par with the“ authorized occupants ”since my mother had requested the renewal on time. of the lease. So where and how is ‘loot to own’? “Write Drabu.
He also wrote that the family paid the government 7.5 lakh rupees per kanal to convert the rental rights into freehold property rights. Drabu also mocked the BJP: “The way the government is packaging and executing the Roshni scheme in the media, is like saying that if there is an audit observation on the PM Cares fund, it is the fault of those who contributed. to the fund instead of those who managed it. “
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