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| Ex-Governor Sinha too a defaulter * Feroz Khan’s sister tops list of declarations | | J&K politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen hide 100,000 Shahtoosh shawls | |
Only 3 politicians---Azad, Baig and Ajatshatru--- declare possession of the banned Chiru product
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, May 24: Among all mainstream and separatist politicians, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, and the National Conference (NC) MLC, Ajatsharu Singh, are the three-odd individuals who have responded to a Supreme Court of India order, followed by a notification from J&K Government's Department of Wildlife Protection, and declared the banned Shahtoosh shawls in their possession. Even as a total of 315 persons in Jammu and Kashmir have declared possession of 944 items and claimed certificates of bona fide ownership, hundreds of political leaders, government officials and businesspersons have not come forward for mandatory declaration. With the authorities failing to conduct raids due to “lack of political will” of the previous PDP-Congress regime, nearly 100,000 Shahtoosh shawls are believed to be in illegal possession of influential businesspersons, traders, politicians and bureaucrats in Jammu & Kashmir.
Now again a Minister in the Union Cabinet, Ghulam Nabi Azad has declared both the Shahtoosh shawls in his possession and taken the certificate of ownership after an extensive process of verification and attachment of radio frequency identification microchip (RFIM) from the state Wildlife authorities. Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig is the one-odd individual among all other active politicians who has declared a shawl in his possession and taken home the certificate of ownership.
Former Minister of Tourism in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s Government and now a Member of Legislative Council (MLC), Ajatshatru Singh and hotelier K K Amla, who have declared two and seven items respectively, are the only businessmen-politicians to have claimed the certificates of ownership. Senior Congress leader and wife of former Chief Secretary S S Bloeria, Mrs Rani Bloeria, has also declared possession of four shawls and completed the formalities under law to take home a certificate of ownership.
Interestingly, authorities have refused to accept former Governor Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha's declaration of a single shawl in his possession for the reason that his Raj Bhawan official had turned up days after the deadline of December 2005, as fixed by Supreme Court, had expired.
While the former judges of J&K High Court, Muzaffar Jan and A Q Parray, have declared possession of one each shawl, Bollywood actor late Feroz Khan's Srinagar-based sister, Dilshad Sheikh, tops the list as she has declared as many as 19 shawls in her possession and claimed the certificate of ownership. She is closely followed by a female teacher of Kashmir University's PG Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, who has declared possession of as many as 16 Shahtoosh shawls.
Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s high profile Principal Secretary, B R Singh, has declared one Shahtoosh shawl in his possession but former Chief Secretary Vijay Bakaya’s wife, Vineeta, and another former Chief Secretary B R Kundal's wife, Shakuntala, have declared possession of two shawls each. Bakaya and Kundal have been both elected as MLCs of National Conference and Congress respectively, earlier this year after their retirement from civil service.
Principal Secretary Anil Goswami (2), his wife Neeru Goswami (6), Secretary Tourism Tanvir Jehan (4), retired Managing Director J&K Tourism Development Corporation Abdul Aziz Wani (2), his retired bureaucrat wife, Roma Wani (2), Principal District & Sessions Judge Kaneez Fatima (4), former J&K Bank official Rauf Fazili's wife Rifat (4) and daughter Uzma (3), former Chief Wildlife Warden late Mir Innayatullah's wife Shireen (3) and his New Delhi-based daughter, Gulrukh Innayat (3) are the other bona fide owners who have voluntarily made declarations.
Among the businesspersons, late D P Dhar's and Tirath Lal Amla's families have declared 17 shawls each. Two more of Srinagar-based business families have declared possession of 50 shawls in the names of their women.
According to Wildlife authorities, 227 men and women have declared possession of 483 items in Jammu but only 461 items have been declared by just 88 persons in Kashmir province. In all, 198 persons have taken certificates of ownership for 432 items in Jammu. Authorities had issued notices to 28 persons, including State Public Service Commission Chairman Mohammad Shafi Pandit's wife, Nighat, asking them to "cooperate" in completing rest of the formalities on Form No: 15 (verification) and Form No: 16 (certificate). Sources said that some of them responded positively but quite a few did not bother to reply. In Kashmir, 75 persons have taken certificates of possession for 300 Shahtoosh items and about a dozen cases were still "under process”.
With just 315 persons having declared 944 shawls, authorities believe that it was "just around one percent of the total stock". "Fearing hassles and complications of Income Tax etc, most of the owners are believed to have concealed Shahtoosh products. Under Supreme Court orders we are supposed to conduct raids on the premises of traders and other persons and places to seize the banned Chiru products", Assistant Wildlife Warden Raashid Yehya Naqaash said. Naqash, who is himself from a family dealing in Kashmir handicrafts and embroidery, believes that total number of Shahtoosh shawls in the state would be "at least one hundred thousand". He made it clear that a credible survey had neither been conducted nor was believed to be possible as the banned Chiru product had invariably come from an unorganized sector of cottage industry in Kashmir.
Naqash admitted in his conversation with Early Times that Department of Wildlife Protection had not conducted any raid to seize the Shahtoosh products in J&K under Supreme Court’s orders mainly for the fact that the previous PDP-Congress government had no political will. He pointed out that even in its Assembly Election 2008 manifesto, PDP had promised the Kashmiri people to “lift the ban” on Shahtoosh trade. Nevertheless, he said, wildlife and customs authorities had made a number of raids and seized the banned Shahtoosh products at several places outside J&K.
While most of the middle class families used to be in possession of at least one Shahtoosh shawl in the Valley before its trade was banned a few years back, hundreds of prominent political leaders and businesspersons have been seen openly sporting the world’s warmest and costliest wool product. They include a large number of Ministers and lawmakers besides the family members of a senior separatist leader whose houses were famous storages of Shahtoosh and Pashmeena shawls in Srinagar. None of them has come forward with a voluntary declaration under law.
Naqash puts the cost of each Shahtoosh shawl at anything between Rs 40,000 to Rs 200,000, depending upon the quality of fleece, size and embroidery on the finished product. USA-trained wildlife expert and a former, Regional Wildlife Warden, Jammu, Naseer Ahmed Kichloo, said that for making one Shahtoosh shawl, five to ten Tibetan antelopes used to be killed in their 16,000 ft altitude habitat in the Himalayas. He said that all those having failed to declare lawful possession of Shahtoosh shawls, Chiru wool and other products within Supreme Court of India’s fixed deadline of December 2005, were liable to severe punishment, including imprisonment and fine, for violation of the law.
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