Jammu, Nov 24 (IANS) After the Jammu and Kashmir government passed orders for the implementation of the high court decision that declared the Roshni Act 2001 void ab initio, authorities have released the list of the high profile beneficiaries of the scrapped act.
The list of the beneficiaries reads like a list of ‘shame’ as the predominant number of beneficiaries under the Act have been former ministers, bureaucrats, police officers, prominent businessmen and political parties.
The government in its decision to implement the high court order has directed the revenue authorities to declare all mutations of the allotted land under the act as void and start the process to retrieve the land from the possession of the erstwhile beneficiaries who have now been declared as illegal encroachers.
The investigations into the Rs 25,000 crore land scam generated through the implementation of the Act have been handed over to the CBI that has reportedly brought some of the high profile beneficiaries into its scanner.
Under the Act, former Minister Haseeb Drabu, his mother and two brothers own four Kanals of land in the Gogjibagh area of Srinagar city. Former bureaucrat Muhammad Shafi Pandit and his wife own two Kanals in the same area.
Another former bureaucrat Tanveer Jahan owns one Kanal in the Rajbagh area of Srinagar allotted to her under the Roshni Act.
Businessman and former treasurer of the Congress party K.K. Amla owns 14 Kanals under the Act in the Maulana Azad Road area where he has constructed a hotel.
Similarly, another prominent businessman, who was close to different governments that came to power in J&K, Mushtaq Chaya owns nine Kanals in the Gogjibagh area on which he has constructed a hotel.
Shahdad family, related to the Abdullahs owns 18 Kanals of similar land in Zaldagar area of Srinagar city.
The Congress owned Khidmat Trust owns 7.15 Kanals while the National Conference owned Nawai Subh Trust owns 3.16 Kanals again in Srinagar city.
A Jammu-based businessman man family, Gagu Ram owns 38.5 Kanals in Bahu, Chawadhi area of Jammu city under the same act.
Interestingly, the Roshni Act was envisaged to generate an income of over Rs 25,000 crores to the state government that would be used for hydro power generation, hence the name Roshni.
The CAG report of 2014 that blew the lid from the land scam said only Rs 76.24 crores were collected by the state government while land worth billions of Rupees was transferred at throwaway prices under the Act.
In a shocking revelation, the land was evaluated at the market price prevailing at the time of allotment and then transferred in the name of the beneficiary by giving a rebate of 80 per cent over the market rate.
Thereby, a Kanal of land that would cost Rs one crore at the time of transfer under the Roshni Act was allotted at Rs 20 lakh.
Baseer Ahmad Khan, a serving advisor to the present Lt. Governor, was booked by the then state Vigilance Commission for gross misuse of power in allotting land to private ownership in Gulmarg ski resort.
Khan was booked for misuse of power in his capacity as the then district development commissioner, Baramulla.
–IANS
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