By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: In Jammu and Kashmir’s annual budget for 2022-23, the Government of India has allotted Rs 50 crore for retrieval of land transferred to occupants under the repealed Roshini Act-2001.
Documents in possession of The Precious Kashmir lay bare that Rs 50 crore have been kept in the budget for retrieval of land under Roshini Act.
“The budgetary provision has been made to pay back premium to those vested with ownership rights of state land under the law,” an official said.
He said Rs 76 crore were deposited by beneficiaries of the law from 2007 to 2013.
In October 2020, the High Court declared the Roshini Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and held allotments under the Act as void ab initio. The HC also ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into transfer of ownership and sought action against bureaucrats involved in it. It also directed government to make public the names of prominent people allotted land under the law.
Before HC judgment, J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik in November 2018 scrapped the law by invoking legislative powers vested with him during Governor’s Rule.
The government repealed the law, reasoning that it had “failed to realise the desired objectives and there were also reports of misuse of some its provisions”.
The law envisaging the transfer of ownership rights of state land to its occupants was enacted by Farooq Abdullah-led government in 2001.
In 2014, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) estimated that against the targeted Rs 25,000 crore, only Rs 76 crore had been realised from the transfer of state land to occupants.
The report pointed out irregularities including arbitrary reduction in prices fixed by a committee, and claimed that this was done to benefit politicians and affluent people.
