Roshni List: PDP office in Jammu located on 'illegally occupied land', says administration

SRINGAR: The People's Democratic Party office is located on the illegally occupied three kanals of land in Jammu's Sunjwan area, according to a list released by the J&K administration on Wednesday.

The UT authorities issued a series of lists in Jammu and Srinagar, mentioning the beneficiaries of land under the "Illegal, unconstitutional" and now-scrapped Roshni Act.

The divisional commissioner of Jammu issued a list of seven beneficiaries who had encroached upon the land physically but didn't show it in the revenue records. This included the PDP office in Jammu, J&K Police's inspector general (retired) Nisar Ali, retired SSP Mirza Rasheed, PDP leader Talib Choudhary and two businessmen.


PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti took to twitter to refute the reports on encroachment. "Godi Gang's desperation to please their masters without checking facts is evident. Otherwise they'd know that the PDP office both in Srinagar and Jammu is rented accommodation and not owned by the party. Shame on this Godi Gang for misleading people."

The National Conference also issued a statement regarding the names of the party leader Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah surfacing in the list of encroachers. The NC linked the issuance of such lists with the upcoming district development council elections in the state. "The party has noted with concern the unfounded and unwarranted allegations being levelled... The fact that DDC and ULB elections are underway, answers the timing and motive of the allegations and nothing much needs to be added on that score. Needless to add that all questions pertaining to the land in question would be fittingly answered as and when they are called upon to do so by the concerned authorities," read the official statement.

J&K administration in another list of Roshni Act beneficiaries mentioned the owner of the Early Times newspaper in Jammu, Bansi Lal, who owns five kanals of land under the scheme. Another prominent person in Jammu and trustee of Digiana Ashram, Mahant Manjeet Singh, is shown to have seven kanals of land in possession. Similarly, another prominent businessman Haji Sultan Ali is shown to have encroached 30 kanals of land.

The J&K high court has declared the Roshni Act as "illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable" and CBI probe has been ordered into the allotment of land under this Act. The CBI has so far registered five cases in connection with the Act.