The Jammu and Kashmir administration has begun publishing the list of beneficiaries on its website — including top politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, etc. — who influenced illegal vesting of state lands to regularize the plots they had encroached upon or illegally occupied.
The development comes over a month after Jammu and Kashmir high court nullified the Roshni Act of 2001.
The first set of beneficiaries of the Rs 25,000 crore Roshni scam in Srinagar “exposed” by the J-K administration include former finance minister and ex-PDP member Haseeb Drabu and three of his family members (each got one kanal of land), Congress member and owner of Broadway Hotel in Srinagar K K Amla (over 11 kanal went to Amla and around one kanal each to his three family members), retired IAS officer Mohd Shafi Pandit and his wife, and hotelier Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya and his son, Times of India reported.
Given that the beneficiaries of land allocation include the rich and famous of J-K, implementation of the HC order will mark arguably the biggest drive to reclaim prize public real estate from the elite. A source indicated that names of some political heavyweights may soon be uploaded as part of the list of beneficiaries.
In Jammu, the Roshni Act cases cited on the J-K administration website are that of ex-legislator Satpal Lakhotra and his three relatives, and government employees and businessmen Naru Ram, Beli Ram, Shallo Ram, Ram Dass and Ram Lal. Those who were vested ownership of encroached state land in Jammu other than under Roshni Act (physically encroached but not shown in revenue records) are National Conference leader Syed Akhoon and Haroon Choudhary and ex-minister from NC Sujjad Kichloo, J&K Bank ex-chairman M Y Khan and ex-NC leader Aslam Goni.
