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| State Govt favours land mafia under garb of Roshini scheme: Harsh | | Scheme used to oblige certain blue eyed favorites | | ET Report
Jammu, Nov 23: Harsh Dev Singh NPP Chairman and MLA Ramnagar has strongly flayed the state govt. for proposed amendments in Roshini scheme and termed it as a ploy to favour the land grabbers and land mafia who have illegally encroached upon State and other nazool land.
He said that through the proposed amendments the govt. seeks to grant further time to illegal occupants of state lands to file applications for regularization of their unauthorized land holdings. He said that it was shocking that rather than retrieving the state land from land mafia, the govt. was providing them opportunity of becoming its lawful owners on payment of negligible costs.
He said the scheme had largely been used to oblige certain blue eyed favorites who were being allowed to become lawful owners of prime land encroached by them on payment of peanuts.
Elaborating further, Singh said that as per the prevailing enactment, the unauthorized occupants upto two kanals were required to pay only 25% of the value of land as determined by the empowered committee. Likewise, he said in case of unauthorized occupancy upto 10 kanals, the encroacher was required to pay only 40% of the value of land. He said the scheme had proved to be a big boon for the land grabbers at the cost of state exchequer.
He said that this was amply demonstrated by the fact that land measuring 6.05 lacs kanals had been regularized in favour of encroachers which was valued of Rs. 316 crores but only 76 crores had been realized. He said that the above figures amply proved the huge frauds perpetuated in the name of Roshini Scheme as not evan 24% of the approved cost (after concessions) of encroached land had been realized after its regularization. Singh further said that the state govt. had announced with much fanfare in 2001 and then in 2007 that it would generate a revenue of Rs. 25,000 crore under 'Roshini Scheme' which would be utilized in the power sector and state made self reliant in Power. He said that the failure of the scheme together with its fraudulent nature was evident from the fact that during the last 12 yrs it had raised only 76 crore as against the stipulated target of Rs. 25,000 crores. He said that it was scandalous that state govt., despite the collusive abuse of the scheme by vested interests, had decided to allow further extensions for filing of applications for regularization of unauthorized occupants on payment of peanuts.
He said that the govt. was accountable in the first instance to explain as to why and how it could raise only 76 crores as against the targeted figure of Rs. 25,000 crores despite expiry of the deadline fixed under the original act for regularization of unauthorized occupancies.
He said the govt. further needed to explain as to why the unauthorized occupants were not evicted after the said deadline in conformity with the provisions of the original act. He said that present extension in time was being given by state govt. only to benefit its blue eyed favorites by granting them further opportunities to get their illegal land encroachments regularized and that too on normal rates. Singh further claimed that there was 20 lakh kanals of state land which was admittedly under the illegal occupation of land grabbers. He said that even the state High Court had issued directions to the state govt. to declare the names of illegal encroachers and to take further steps for retrieval of the said lands.
He said it was ironical that rather their ensuring eviction of the unauthorized occupants, the state govt. had once again proposed amendments in the rules for conferring ownership rights upon the grabbers. He said that the govt. move was fraught with dangerous consequences as it would encourage land mafia to encroach further lands and to ensure its regularization in connivance with concerned officials of the revenue Deptt. He called upon the State Governor to intervene so as to prevent the passage of said rules. He said that the Governor had powers under Rule 31 (2) and under fourth schedule of Govt. Business Rules to call for information on matters of policy and to take the final call in the overall interests of the state and its people. |
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