They have bread buttered on both sides !
For the decision that was termed as ‘Landmark' to benefit those who usurped the state land one way or the other, the end was more important than the means.
At the end of the day, the much touted Roshni brought only darkness; it lit up nothing. The intent and the way the Roshni Scheme was conceived and conducted was certainly shoddy that ended up adding more confusion and suspicion. The fatal fall came when it was discovered that thousands of kanals of state land under unauthorised occupation was regularised for peanuts and the illegal occupants were given incentives/rebates over and above the notified price of respective land.
Entire Roshni scheme was challenged before the Hon'ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir by a social activist Prof. S.K. Bhalla filing a PIL 19/2011 titled SK Bhalla Vs State of Jammu and Kashmir wherein the High Court passed dozens of interim orders but administration has not come clean till now before the court and rather prolonged the matter unreasonably. The government did not provide the names of the beneficiaries who got the state land transferred in their name availing the‘God sent opportunity.
The controversial issue was echoed in the legislature too where the entire issue was referred to the Public Accounts Committee to untangle the mess but without any result. The issue was again raised in the upper house a day before by a BJP member Mr. Romesh Arora.
So far, the names of beneficiaries remained shrouded in a mystery. The Northlines has, in its possession, a long list of test cases examined and audited by the CAG units that contains many high and mighty from political class, 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.
Northlines is reproducing the VII instalment 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.
