The State Land Grabbers-III

In past, the glorified ‘greats' like Alexander and Columbus were essentially the land grabbers. The ‘civilised' imperial colonists took over that mantle next. Later, in this continent particularly Jammu and Kashmir land grab became the preserve of a common conman who might be a local with political clout, powerful positions or pompous business or a random rowdy. In our state, any vacant land, with or without a compound, has waited always to be occupied by anyone other than the owner. For the revenue record manipulation, the most powerful man- Patwari wielding magic-wand after Akbar's Todal Mal could do and undo with demon's script.

When Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then Chief Minister brought an idea of rewarding all those bigwigs for grabbing state land in the state, he knew that he was creating a ‘Black-hole' that would swallow the entire artificial ‘Roshni.'

The scheme and its operation in the state landed it into a long-drawn controversy which has been going more complex and confused with every passing day.

The Northlines has, in its possession, a long list of test cases examined and audited by the CAG units that contains many big names of top political figures in and out of government, serving and retired bureaucrats, top businessmen who possessed the state land and availed huge incentive worth crores of rupees on their act of grabbing state land.

We are reproducing the 3rd instalment of next four pages of the list for the information of our readers and for all those for whom it would serve as a grim reminder to act in public interest.