Former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and senior BJP chief Kavinder Gupta, who described the switch of state lands to personal people underneath the controversial Roshni Act (now repealed) as “land jihad” for the district improvement council. The DDC) elections final November, from 2010 to early 2017 had been themselves about unlawful encroachments on the state’s land.
According to info acquired from Bhalwal tehsildar by way of an RTI utility filed by advocate Sheikh Shakeel, Kavinder Gupta together with two others – Subhash Sharma and Shiv Ratan Gupta – collectively owned 23 kanals, 9 marlas (8 kanals = 1 acre). Captured Khasra No. 1789. or 4,047 sq m, 1 marla = 270 sq ft) in Ghink village of Bhalwal tehsil in Jammu district between 2010 and 2016. Khasra Number is a plot quantity assigned to a chunk of land by the Revenue Department.
Sharma is an impartial councilor and represents Indra Colony, Janipur in Jammu Municipal Corporation. Shiv Ratan Gupta is a resident of Indra Colony.
Both Kavinder Gupta and Sharma denied taking possession of presidency land in Ghink village. Kavinder Gupta stated, “I swear to my parents that I do not know when and how the revenue authorities entered in my name in Girdavari belonging to 23 kanal and 9 marla state land and how and when it was canceled Gaya.” Indian Express.
In 2010, when his identify was registered as Khasra Girdavari (Revenue Department doc that specifies land and crop particulars), there was a National Conference-Congress coalition authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and Kavinder Gupta was the Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation. However, this was quashed by the Bhalwal Tehsildar on February 9, 2017 following a 2011 order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which directed the federal government to cancel all mutation and girdawari of state land in favor of personal people. had gone.
The course got here in a PIL filed by retired professor SK Bhalla by way of advocate Sheikh Shakeel. Kavinder Gupta was the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly at the moment.
Ahead of the DDC elections in November 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir authorities revealed an inventory of individuals, together with politicians from opposition events and retired bureaucrats, who occupied state land, or Jammu and Kashmir state land (proprietary). possession) was transferred to them. The Occupants) Act, 2001, often known as the Roshni Act.
When contacted, Bhalwal Tehsildar Amit Upadhyay and Ghayink Patwari Mohammad Aslam stated that they have no idea how the income entries (girdawari) had been filed in 2010 in respect of state land within the identify of Kavinder Gupta and two others.
Upadhyay, nevertheless, stated that in respect of state land, khasra girdawari can’t be registered in anybody’s identify until an individual is current on the spot to indicate that the land is in his possession. The land parcel – Khasra No. 1789 – is a hill with wild progress and has now been restored to the federal government, he stated. “There is no construction, there is no farming,” he stated.
The Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Right of Ownership of Occupants) Act was enacted in 2001 by the National Conference authorities led by Farooq Abdullah. It proposed to switch the possession of the state’s land to its unlawful occupiers by charging market charges, and hoped to lift Rs 25,000 crore (therefore the identify Roshni) for organising hydroelectric initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General famous numerous irregularities within the implementation of the scheme and the vigilance group towards over 20 authorities officers for misusing their official place in transferring state land to personal individuals. Four years later, underneath Satya Pal Malik as governor of Jammu and Kashmir, the Roshni Act was repealed and all pending purposes to switch the state’s land possession to its occupiers. In October 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court put aside the Act “ab initio” and ordered a CBI inquiry, setting apart all actions taken underneath its provision since its inception.
In a press convention in November 2020, the then Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was among the many beneficiaries of the Roshni Act. Ahead of the DDC elections, when the Jammu and Kashmir administration started making public the names of unlawful occupants of state land, together with Roshni scheme beneficiaries, Kavinder Gupta described the federal government motion as a “surgical strike” towards the corrupt, who “The state grabbed a priceless chunk of land “at dirt-cheap charges”.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
