The National Conference on Tuesday termed as "completely false" the news reports claiming that former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was a beneficiary of the now-scrapped Roshni Act.
This comes after news reports said that Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah have been named by the Jammu and Kashmir government in a list alleging their residence in Jammu is built on illegally-possessed land.
"The news attributing to sources that Dr Farooq Abdullah is a beneficiary of the Roshni Act is completely false and is being spread with malicious intent. Dr Farooq Abdullah has NOT availed of the Roshni Scheme for either his residence in Srinagar or in Jammu and anyone who says otherwise is lying," the National Conference said in a press release.
The party said that the fact that they are using sources to plant this story shows that it has no legs to stand on.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration had recently published on its website a list of beneficiaries under the now-scrapped Roshni Act including former ministers, retired civil servants and politicians.
Among those allotted land under the now-scrapped law are former PDP leader Haseeb Drabu and three members of his family, former minister Sujjad Kichloo, Congress leader KK Amla, retired IAS officer Mohd Shafi Pandit and his wife, National Conference leader Syed Akhoon and former J-K Bank chairman MY Khan, according to a list by the Divisional Commissioner of Jammu.
Those who had vested ownership of encroached state land in Jammu other than under the Roshni Act, physically encroached but not shown in revenue records, are National Conference leader Haroon Choudhary and its former leader Aslam Goni and others.
The list was published as per the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which had reportedly declared the Roshni Act "illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable" and ordered a CBI probe into the alleged instances of irregularities in the allotment of land under this law.
Governor Satya Pal Malik had in 2018 repealed the Roshni Act, enacted by the then Farooq Abdullah government, stopping all further proceedings under it. The law was aimed at cutting down the encroachment of land in Jammu and Kashmir by selling it to the occupants at the market rate.
( With inputs from ANI )
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