Srinagar: J&K Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Lone while not opposing Sagarmal land auction made some suggestions to the government to manage its assets.
Commenting on the much-discussed Rs 421.75 crore land auction adjacent to Sangramal, won by a consortium comprising a local corporate entity headed by Mr. Mushtaq Chaya and a non-local corporate partner, Lone said that the government has no business being in business.
“It is not the job of the government to make shops, run marriage halls or undertake any corporate activity,” he said, adding that the state must not crowd out private players by occupying commercial space that rightly belongs to them. The government’s role, he maintained, is to enable and regulate — not to compete.
Turning to the specifics of the auction, Lone acknowledged the model as a step forward but did not shy away from pointing out its limitations. “I personally don’t think there should have been a lock, stock and barrel auction,” he remarked, arguing instead that the government ought to have insisted on retaining an equity stake in the consortium. He assessed the reserve price as being significantly on the lower side, stating plainly that “the auction should have yielded a higher price — in the region of 900 to 1,000 crores.”
He, however, noted that the current model broadly emulates the Leela-Centaur hotel deal and represents a meaningful improvement over the deeply flawed approaches of the past.
“This model is much better than the old model where properties have been gifted away for a pittance,” he said, before drawing a pointed and damning comparison with the Sangramal Mall — conceived and built during the 2002–2008 PDP-Congress coalition government, when the Urban Development Department was believed to be under the PDP’s charge.
The economics of that project, he said, were nothing short of disastrous. “Add the price of the Sangramal land parcel and the cost of construction, and then subtract from it the revenue generated by sale of shops — it is a massive loss,” he said, noting that one of the most expensive parcels of real estate in Jammu and Kashmir had been reduced to a dead shopping mall.
“I can’t think of any other government apart from the good old Soviet Union that was in the business of making malls and then selling the shops — and then of course our government does it even now.” Meanwhile, private developers who entered the same space have thrived.
He demanded greater transparency in all such auctions and an infusion of fresh faces into the corporate landscape of Jammu and Kashmir.
