Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 29: The State Vigilance Organisation chargesheeted 68 people, including Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials, for allotting shops in Srinagar to non-deserving beneficiaries against huge consideration of money.
A Vigilance Organisation Kashmir (VOK) spokesperson said 68 accused, including employees of SMC, were chargesheeted in the Court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Court here today. He said a case was registered in Police Station VOK, pursuant to the outcome of an enquiry wherein it had surfaced that SMC officials, including a ward officer, had allotted shops in Block-C Hazuri Bagh, Srinagar to non-deserving beneficiaries against huge consideration of money.
During investigation it has been found that then Assistant Revenue Officer Abdul Rahman Taploo, then Ward Officer Lal Chowk Farooq Ahmad Mir, then Ward Officer Jawahar Nagar Ghulam Mohidin Misger and then TGR Assistant Abdul Aziz Pir of SMC had prepared a fraud list of 120 dislocated shopkeepers for rehabilitation in Block-C Hazuri Bagh Srinagar in criminal conspiracy with brokers Zahoor Ahmad Wani, Mushtaq Ahmad Kak and others.
He said during investigation nothing was found in the records of SMC which could remotely suggest that any of the 120 enlisted beneficiaries had a shop, kiosk or khokha at the time of their so called dislocation in the year 1993.
“It was found that none of the enlisted 120 beneficiaries had been a payer of Shop Rent or Temporary Ground Rent or Municipal Shop Tax to the Corporation as per the records of Revenue Section of SMC”, he said.
The spokesperson said the dislocation of enlisted beneficiaries or demolition of their shops was not even established by the records of Khilafwarzi Section of SMC. He further said that it was found that some of the enlisted beneficiaries were not even born in 1993.
“Various enlisted beneficiaries were found to be school going boys at that point of time. The false list of dislocated shopkeepers also included some employees of Government, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Handicrafts Corporation etc at the time of so called fictitious demolition drive”, he added.
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