Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has made public a list of Roshni scheme beneficiaries, which include politicians, businessmen, and bureaucrats. These are people who took possession of state land and then as per the Roshni Law, which now stands annulled, transferred it to their names. It is not yet clear what action will be taken against them.
In Kashmir Valley, among the beneficiaries are former finance minister Haseeb Drabu and his three relatives, Shahzada Banoo, Ajaz Drabu, Iftikhar Drabu, Congress leader and businessman KK Amla, his relatives Rachna Amla and Veena Amla, businessman Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya, former bureaucrat Muhammad Shafi Pandit and his wife Nighat Pandit, and Syed Muzaffar Aga.
The list of encroachers whose names are now in revenue records includes Syed Akhoon, leader of National Conference (NC); MY Khan; Abdul Majid Wani, ex-minister of the Congress; Aslam Goni; Haroon Choudhary, leader of NC; Sajjad Kichloo, ex-minister of NC. The list also had names of several government employees and businessmen.
As per the list, the businessmen include Mushtaq Ahmed Chaya and KK. Amla, who is also a Congress leader. The duo own Hotel Broadway, Hotel Radison, Hotel Ruby and the Residency Hotel, all at prime locations.
The land occupied by offices of political parties, which include National Conference’s Nawa-e-Subah Trust and the Congress’s Khidmat Trust, also features in the list. Dor the former, 16 marlas were transferred, while for the latter a total of seven kanals, 15 marlas and 84 sq ft of land were transferred under the annulled law. The land occupied by the Congress office is valued at Rs 80 crore. Its price was fixed at Rs 8.54 crore (Rs 1.10 crore/kanal) but the Congress enjoyed a rebate of Rs 7.58 crore and paid a total of Rs 96 lakh to the government under the Roshni law.
Hotelier Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya possesses 5 kanals and 8 marlas at Maulana Azad Road for which he paid Rs 97.20 lakh and enjoyed a rebate of Rs 3.35 crore. He has also regularised his possession of 4 kanals and 16 kanals in Gogji Bagh, for which he paid Rs 66.52 lakh and took a rebate of Rs 1.27 crore. Both the properties are currently valued at Rs 80 crore.
The list has been released after the High Court asked the administration to reveal the identities of people who had benefited under the law. A total of 6,04,602 kanals of state land had been regularised and transferred to the occupants which include 5,71,210 kanals in Jammu and 33,392 kanals in the Kashmir province.
Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had unearthed Rs 25,000 crore Roshni land scam in its annual audit report of 2013-14.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz