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| 'Act incurred unprecedented losses to state exchequer' | | AG questions constitutionality of Roshni Act | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Dec12: The J&K Accountant General, in the interim audit, has said the state government has suffered huge financial loss running into thousands of crores as ownership rights for state land under illegal occupation was vested with the owners, under Roshni Act, 2008, at rates much below the market price. The Accountant General has even raised question on the constitutionality of the Roshni Act stating that any law conferring special privileges on citizens should be passed by two-thirds majority but the Roshni Act was passed by the state legislature with simple majority.
According to the well placed sources, the Accountant General has raised questions on the legality of the Roshni Act and has argued that law regarding conferment of special privilege to the citizens should essentially be passed by two-thirds majority in the legislature not by the simple majority. Though the state law department, according to the sources, has contested the argument of the AG stating that the historical J&K Agrarian Reforms Act was also passed by simple majority when the scope of that law was much wider than the Roshni Act. The AG, according to the sources, had asked the government (Revenue and Law Departments) for a meeting in the afternoon today to discuss the issue, however, it was not immediately known whether the meeting took place or not.
Sources further said the AG has also raised questions over the government decision to confer the ownership rights of the illegal occupants of agriculture land without any fee.
Sources said, the AG has strongly objected to the complete exemption of fee on agriculture land conferred on the illegal occupants.
They said the AG has also raised objections on further concession by the District Committees constituted for determining the market rates and fixing the value of the land on their assumptions and presumptions.
The AG has also criticized the government for not focusing on the purpose for which the scheme was enacted. It said the primary purpose of the scheme was to generate revenue for power generation but the state government has lost the focus and whatever little capital was raised out of the scheme, was not used for the purpose.
Earlier the AG had said that the loss due to wrong imposition of Roshni Act, could be unprecedented in the history of the state. The report said that 2.5 lakh applications had been received for transfer of about 18 lakh kanal of land, which is about 90% of total encroached land as admitted by the revenue minister in the assembly. About 80,000 applications are still pending. The government has approved ownership rights for over 6.75 lakh kanals (1 kanal is 5,440 sq ft and 1 acre is 8 kanals) to encroachers for a petty sum of R76 crore. "Even if we take a conservative market rate of R2 lakh per kanal, the government could earn about Rs 18,000 crore. |
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