Abdullahs’ house in Jammu built on encroached land,J&K admn

Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have been named by the Jammu and Kashmir administration in a list which alleges that their residential house in Jammu is built over illegally-possessed land, a charge denied by the father-son duo. The list also highlighted the headquarters of their National Conference in both Srinagar and Jammu were legalised under the controversial Roshni Act. According to displayed lists on its website - one showing encroached land outside Roshni Act, the divisional administration Jammu revealed that the residential house of the Abdullahs, build over an area of nearly an acre at Sunjwan, is encroached state land (physically encroached but not shown in revenue record) other than Roshi Act.

Reacting to the fresh list, party vice president Omar Abdullah said, “The news attributing to sources that Dr Farooq Abdullah is a beneficiary of the Roshni Act is completely false and is being spread with a malicious intent. Both his houses at Jammu and Srinagar have nothing to do with the said Act. “Dr Farooq Abdullah has not availed of the Roshni Scheme for either his residence in Srinagar or in Jammu and any one who says otherwise is lying. The fact that they are using sources to plant this story shows that it has no legs to stand on,” Omar said. The house of senior Abdullah was built in late 1990s for which timber was allocated from the government depots, which is issued only after furnishing all revenue records, officials in the know said.

Earlier, three former ministers, several politicians and a former bureaucrat figured in the list of beneficiaries who have availed land under now scrapped Roshni Act or encroached state land for residential or commercial purposes. The lists were made public by the divisional administration, both in Kashmir and Jammu regions, in accordance with the October 9 directive of the high court which has declared Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of the land under this law. On November 1, the Union Territory government 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.

The Jammu and Kashmir state lands (vesting of ownership to the occupants) act was enacted in the year 2001 with the twin objective of generating resources for financing power projects and conferment of proprietary rights to the occupants of the state land. The act popularly called as Roshni scheme initially envisaged conferment of proprietary rights of around 20.55 lakh Kanals (102750 hectares) to the occupants of which only 15.85 per cent land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.The scheme was finally repealed by the then governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.