Complete identities of all influential persons, including Ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, police officers, businessmen, etc., and their relatives or persons’ who has benefitted under the act are being made public.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on October 31 declared all the actions taken under the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, also known as the Roshni Act, under which 20 lakh kanals of land was to be transferred to existing occupants, as “null and void”. Earlier in 2018, Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik had pronounced the law “no longer relevant” because it had “failed to realise the desired objectives and there were also reports of misuse of some its provisions”.
What is Roshni Act:
The law, which had proposed to transfer ownership of state land to its occupants for a fee determined by the government, was popularly known as the Roshni Act, as the proceeds from these transactions were to fund power projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
It was enacted by the then Farooq Abdullah government in 2001, and it set 1990 as the cutoff for encroachment on state land. The government’s target was to earn Rs 25,000 crore by transferring 20 lakh kanals of state land to existing occupants against payment at market rates. The government said the revenue generated would be spent on commissioning hydroelectric power projects, hence the name “Roshni”.
The Roshni scheme initially envisaged conferment of proprietary rights of around 20.55 lakh kanals of land (1,2,50 hectares) to occupants of which 15.85 per cent of land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.
The transactions under the Roshni Act had been halted in 2018 after Jammu and Kashmir went under governor’s rule and Governor Satya Pal Malik had pronounced the law “no longer relevant”. And that was before the state was stripped of special status under Article 370 and split into two Union Territories.
A CAG report estimated that against the targeted Rs 25,000 crore, only Rs 76 crore had been realised from the transfer of land into private ownership.
‘Completely unconditional’, says J&K HC
Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court pronounced the Roshni Act “completely unconstitutional, contrary to law and unsustainable” and ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe on the “land scam” enabled by the law.
Politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats had come under severe criticism for transferring state land into their ownership and that of their favourites at arbitrarily fixed rates, which ultimately deprived the state of land worth several thousand crores and also defeated the purpose of the act.
Farooq Abdullah accused of illegally acquiring govt land
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has been named in the Roshni land scam. According to details available, Farooq illegally acquired seven Kanal land (605 square yards) of government land in the 90s.
Back in 1998, Farooq in Sunjwan of Jammu had purchased 3 Kanal land. But he took possession of 7 Kanal land in the nearby forest area. The market value of the said land is estimated to be around Rs 10 crore.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s sister and two prominent hoteliers including a Congress leader figure in the second list of 130 people who have availed land under now-scrapped Roshni Act.
According to the fresh list uploaded on the website of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, majority of the beneficiaries including a former bureaucrat and his wife legalised their residential places under the scheme, while there are also names of dozens of businessmen who have got the ownership of their commercial buildings.
This is the second list of beneficiaries issued by the divisional administration in accordance with the October 9 directive of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court which has declared Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of the land under this law.
The administration uploaded a list of 35 beneficiaries which included former finance minister Haseeb Drabu, some of his relatives and top hoteliers and a former bureaucrat earlier.
The second list included names of Congress leader K K Amla and Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya, both prominent businessmen and hoteliers besides former bureaucrat Mohammad Shafi Pandit and his wife.
Suriya Abdullah, sister of Farooq Abdullah, was also named among the beneficiaries who got ownership of an over three kanal plot under residential use.
According to the list, the land had been approved by the authorities but she was yet to pay ₹1 crore fees. No notice had also been issued to her since the time of approving the land in her name.
On November 1, the Union Territory administration cancelled all land transfers that took place under the JK State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 – also known as the Roshni Act – under which 2.5 lakh acres of land was to be transferred to the existing occupants.
The principal secretary and revenue department have been asked to work out a plan to retrieve large tracts of state land vested under the Act. According to the high court order, a total of 6,04,602 kanals (75,575 acres) of state land had been regularised and transferred to the occupants. This included 5,71,210 kanals (71,401 acres) in Jammu and 33,392 kanals (4174 acres) in the Kashmir province.
“Principal Secretary to Government, Revenue Department shall also work out the modalities and plan to evict encroachers from such State Land and retrieve the State land within a period of six months. Principal Secretary to Government, Revenue Department shall work out modalities for handling the money received for these lands after annulment,” the JK government had said in a statement.
According to the order, complete identities of influential persons, including ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, police officers and businessmen, their relatives or persons holding benami for them, who have derived benefit under the Roshni Act, will be made public within a period of one month.
The scheme was finally repealed by the then governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.
Amid reports about its widespread misuse, the entire legislation was challenged before the high court which stayed the proceedings under the Act and also directed that neither the occupants having been conferred upon the ownership rights shall sell these lands nor can raise constructions on such lands.
Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP office sits on an encroached three kanals of state land in Sanjuan in Jammu. It is suspected to have been encroached when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the chief minister, the government order said.
In 2014, however, the Comptroller and Auditor General had estimated that only Rs 76 crore had been raised from the transfer of encroached land between 2007 and 2013.
