Srinagar: A year after the High Court struck down the Roshni Act, the Jammu and Kashmir government has now begun an exercise to retrieve the land granted under this Act to beneficiaries.
On November 1, 2020, the Union Territory administration cancelled all land transfers that took place under the JK State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 – also known as the Roshni Act – under which 2.5 lakh acres of land was to be transferred to the existing occupants.
A senior revenue department official informed that after publishing the list of beneficiaries, the district administrations have been asked to retrieve the land.
“ As per the preliminary reports submitted by the District Magistrates over 2000 acres of land granted under Roshni Act has been retrieved since the exercise began last week.”
Officials informed that the highest number of Roshni land has been retrieved in Ramban district of Jammu division so far.
Authorities in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir have retrieved over 1,537.4 acres of state land and those given under the Roshni Act during an anti-encroachment drive, an official spokesman had said on Saturday.
The drive was conducted across Ramban from November 15 on the directions of Ramban Deputy Commissioner Mussarat Islam, the spokesman said.
Providing a break-up, the Revenue department said 283 Kanals of encroached land were retrieved in Ramsoo tehsil, 3,353 Kanals in Gool, 477 Kanals in Rajgarh, 922 Kanals in Banihal, 496 Kanals in Batote, 1,113 Kanals in Khari, 1,923 Kanals in Ukhral and 3742 Kanals in Ramban tehsil.
In the Shopian district of Kashmir division, the district administration demolished private buildings, shops and retrieval of land given under the Roshni Act, which was struck down by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
“First drive against Roshni beneficiaries was carried out in Awneera Halqa of Zainapora and 15 kanals of land were retrieved during the drive, and the action is in full swing in the district.”
“A village-wise list of encroached land has been made and the eviction process will be carried out in phases in the coming days,” officials informed.
Shopian District Magistrate Sachin Kumar Vaishya said the high court’s directions would be implemented in letter and spirit to retrieve the encroached land along with the state land allotted under the Roshni Act, 2007.
In Doda district, teams from the revenue department recovered over 98 acres of state and Roshni land in the last two days, official had said
The encroached lands were retrieved in Kondhra, Mundhar, Mothi, Gadi, Bhella and Chiralla villages, the officials said.
In Reasi district, the revenue officials conducted anti-encroachment drives in Arnas and Thuroo tehsils and recovered nearly 85 acres of land, they said.
The Roshni Act was enacted in 2001 with the twin objective of generating resources for financing power projects and conferment of proprietary rights to the occupants of state land.
The High Court had declared the Act “unconstitutional” and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to take up the case.
The revenue department was asked to work out a plan to retrieve large tracts of state land vested under the Act. According to the high court order, a total of 6,04,602 kanals (75,575 acres) of state land had been regularised and transferred to the occupants. This included 5,71,210 kanals (71,401 acres) in Jammu and 33,392 kanals (4174 acres) in the Kashmir province.
According to the order, complete identities of influential persons, including ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, police officers and businessmen, their relatives or persons holding benami for them, who have derived benefit under the Roshni Act, will be made public within a period of one month.
The scheme was finally repealed by the then governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.
Amid reports about its widespread misuse, the entire legislation was challenged before the high court which stayed the proceedings under the Act and also directed that neither the occupants having been conferred upon the ownership rights shall sell these lands nor can raise constructions on such lands.
In 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General had estimated that only Rs 76 crore had been raised from the transfer of encroached land between 2007 and 2013, against the target of Rs 25,000 crore.