New land law will check Roshni-like scams, illegal land grabbing: Jitendra Singh
New Delhi: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said the new land law will check Jammu and Kashmir’s Roshni-like scams and illegal land grabbing
He said the law is also against “mafia members of the politician-administration nexus” who have been for over half-a-century constructing huge mansions, bungalows and commercial complexes on unauthorised land.
“It is precisely for this reason that all these habitual law breakers have ganged up to spread a disinformation campaign against the land law which has been implemented as per the provisions of the Constitution of India,” the Minister of State for Personnel said.
He accused the “Roshni scamsters” and land grabbers of opposing the land law of Jammu and Kashmir.
On November 01, the Union Territory administration had 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 High Court has declared Roshni Act as “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of the land under this law.
“The new land law will check Roshni-like scams and illegal land grabbing in future,” Singh told PTI.
The Centre has recently allowed people from across the country to buy land in Jammu and Kashmir by amending several laws.
He said “most of the cases of illegal occupation of land and illegal constructions were carried out during the National Conference-Congress and PDP-Congress governments, and its beneficiaries include high profile ministers and bureaucrats from Kashmir as well as some of the then ministers from the Jammu region.
“All the injustice to Jammu was done when the Congress and National Conference ministers from Jammu were part of the governments and if they are now saying that Jammu did not get its due, they are actually raising question mark on their own role as ministers at that time,” the minister said.
Addressing meetings during the district development council election campaign in Chennai area of Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said it is interesting to see that some of these former ministers had always been demanding CBI inquiries for insignificant cases, but now objecting to the investigation into the land grabbing case.
