By Daya Sagar
So in view of the brief as made here earlier, it would be wise and fair to note :
1.that amendments to Roshni Act 2001 { Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, 2001 amended upto date – 2007 ( commonly known as Roshni scheme) } were made by the Legislature.
2that The revenue estimates made earlier needed to be revised worth going down by over 97 % in view of the revision of rules by Congress -PDP Government 2002 to 2008 when Ghulam Nabi Azad ji was CM so as to give government lands for agriculture use to the occupants free cost ( just Rs. 100 per Kanal as documentation charges as against the original rough estimates for all occupied lands at around Rs.1.24 Lakh per kanal for estimated 20 Lkh kanal total such land ). According to CAG report tabled in LA in March 2014 , of the 3, 48,160 kanals of land approved upto March 2013 for transfer, major portion (3,40,091 Kanal) was categorized as “Agricultural” and subsequently transferred free of cost and no stamp duty was charged while transferring such a huge agricultural.
3.that the ‘base prices’ in general for different categories / locations were fixed by a Price Fixation Committee ordered by the Government and not by the individual revenue officers.
4.that the norms for realisation of the cost after discounts on the base prices from the existing residential lease holders were also fixed by the government and not individual revenue officers.
5.that more need is to examine (a) allotment of lands for the Agriculture purposes free of costs since it here where individuals were involved and the target revenue was made to ‘crash’ to as low as Rs.1000 to 2000 Cr only by this provision / amendment done by government(b) cases where lands had been allotted earlier for social / education/ welfare purposes and instead have been used for commercial purposes but the concerned verification revenue officer / authority has still realised cost for use by an institution / trust / individual as non commercial / residential(c) the verification of lands in legitimate possession of the occupants over the years (d) why have the beneficiaries who were sent advices for making payment for conversion of their leased ( originally 40 years or so) residential plots / lands to ownership did not make the payments ( The CAG report has also observed that only Rs 76.24 crore (24 per cent) was reportedly realized against a demand of Rs 317.54 crore raised by the end of March 2013 in the actual transfer of 3,48,160 kanals in the state ) ,did they have genuine objections looking at the present rates in place for SDA/JDA/JKHB norms as regards conversion of Lease to FREE HOLD ? And in case it is so why not accept their request and realize the pending invoices raised by the concerned Tehsildars / DCs ? This would also settle some grievances and ‘pending’ files. (e ) that has the Price Fixation Committee assessed the category / area wise base prices in the Urban areas much below the rates in official records for the private land sale deeds or the base premium rates charged by JDA /SDA/JKHB for residential plots ? (f) the cases of residential land lease holders of the periods as far back as of1950s/1960s who have their houses in place with renewed lease or lease formally to be further renewed termed as authorised overstayed occupants ( there may be many cases also pertaining to JK Housing Board / JDA /SDA in Jammu / Srinagar where residential plots were allotted on 20yr / 40r lease and the lease has not yet been formally renewed.
Concluded
(Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalist & social activist can be reached at [email protected])
