Roshni Land Scheme: Former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu Under CBI Scanner In Rs 25,000 Cr Scam, Know The Entire Case

After the Jammu and Kashmir High Court ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the Roshni land scheme, huge names have been revealed by some sources from CBI. Read On.

New Delhi: Huge revelations have been made in the much famous Rs 25,000-cr Roshni land scam of Jammu and Kashmir. The Central Bureau of Investigation is conducting a probe into the multi-crore land scam highlighting encroachment of 20 lakh kanal state land by powerful land mafias in league with politicians, revenue officials, and the police. Also Read|Amid Mounting Criticism, Kerala Govt To Hold Discussion In Assembly After Taking Back The Controversial Police Amendment According to the sources of ABP News, big political leaders and their families are under the CBI scanner. Former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, his wife Sehzada Bano, son Eizaj and Iftikhar, Congress leader KK Amla and his wife Rachna are on CBI's radar. What Are Jammu and Kashmir's Roshni Act? In October of this year, the Jammu and Kashmir Land (Vesting Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, was declared null and void. This was the result of a High Court order. The law, popularly known as Roshni Act, proposed the transfer of ownership of state land to its occupants for a fee determined by the J&K government. It was introduced by the then government to generate funds for the development of new power projects in J&K. Ever since the CAG report in 2014 disclosed that it could not meet the financial target, the Roshni Act has been marred by controversies. There have also been allegations of misuse of the law by "powerful" people. What is the Roshni Land Scam case? Roshni Act was first rendered ineffective by the then J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik in 2018. However, the J&K High Court heard a PIL declared the whole Act as null and void and ordered the cancellation of all land mutations from the beginning. A CBI inquiry was ordered to probe the matter. The Roshni land scheme, or the Roshni Act, was believed to be a revolutionary step that had the twin objectives of generating resources for financing power projects and conferment of propriety rights to occupants of state land. It was hoped that the legislation would help to boost the farming sector and in turn generate substantial revenue for funding power projects across the state. The Act initially planned conferment of propriety rights of around 1,250 hectares of land to occupants of which 15.85 per cent of land was approved for vesting of ownership rights. But against the expected revenue from such occupants, the revenue actually generated was meagre, thereby failing to realise the objective of the scheme that was finally repealed by Satya Pal Malik, the then Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, on November 28, 2018. On November 20, the CBI registered another case in connection with the ₹25,000-crore Roshni land scam, pursuant to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order to probe the alleged involvement of public servants and others in grabbing government land. The order had noted that during verification, records of a few randomly selected cases were examined and it was found that the Revenue Department, Jammu, officials had extended favours to the illegal occupants in vesting the ownership rights. They did not keep a proper record of possession. The payment rates were not fixed by the Price Fixation Committee as per rules, and in many cases, the money was not remitted to the exchequer. The illegal occupants were not evicted and the land parcels in question were not put up for auction.

The CBI had registered three separate cases related to the scam.