Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 29: Seeking the repeal of the controversial J&K State Lands (vesting of ownership to the occupants) Act, 2001 commonly known as ‘Roshni Act’ in toto, NPP chairman and former Minister Harsh Dev Singh, today said that its partial annulment would not fulfill the desired objectives and serve the purpose besides being discriminatory.
While describing the Roshni Scheme as biggest land scam in the history of J&K, Singh asked the Constitutional Head of the State to declare the Act as `void ab initio’.
Dubbing the enactment of Roshni Scheme as huge political fraud, Harsh Dev said that through this Act several land grabbers were contemptuously empowered and allowed to own thousands kanals of land which they had illegally occupied in the State. “Only rich, powerful, elite and land grabbers who had the audacity to usurp the land were conferred the ownership rights by virtue of the Act against ‘throw away’ prices. While the 77000 pending applications filed all across the State after March 31, 2007 turned in fructuous in view of SAC revoking the Roshni Scheme but shockingly the action taken under the provisions of the repealed Act earlier remained valid, Harsh regretted.
“What about the conferment of ownership rights to those who unlawfully grabbed thousands of Kanals of land until March, 2007? The Act had only put J&K State ‘for sale’ at peanut prices. The beneficiaries included several ex- Ministers, ex-MLAs/ MLCs, bureaucrats besides other rich and powerful. The Act did not yield any agrarian reform but it only bestowed benevolence upon the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats including the influential people to become landlords over night.
Ruing that Roshni Act had failed to generate the revenue to fund the power sector in the State, Singh divulged that the previous governments had claimed it would get Rs 25000 crores out of the Roshni Act but as of now only 72 crores had been realized so far. “The Roshni scheme which had envisaged agricultural reforms and generation of revenue to strengthen power sector in the State had miserably failed to achieve its objectives. Its provisions were reportedly manipulated to serve the vested interests of the people sitting at the helm of the affairs and the influential land mafia who had usurped huge chunks of lands all across the State.
He appealed the Governor to take cognizance of the serious situation which could emerge from the Act’s abrogation.
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