Govt exchequer deprived of Rs 570 lakh
*No recovery made despite explicit provisions in Rules
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 17: Ex-Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and Cabinet Ministers are among 47 former members of 12th Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly who have failed to clear house building advance given by the Secretariat of the House several years back and due to this the Government exchequer has been deprived of Rs 570 lakh. Moreover, no efforts have been made by the authorities concerned to make recovery despite explicit provisions in this regard in the Rules.
Vide SRO 306, the then Governor of the erstwhile State in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 10 of Salaries and Allowances of Members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Act, 1960 made Housing Loan (to members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature) Rules,1988 and the same were notified on September 22, 1988.
As per these Rules, members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature were allowed a loan of Rs 5 lakh for construction of house. It was mentioned in the Rules that in case the member does not avail the car advance admissible under Motor Car Advance (to Members of Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature) Rules, 1987, he or she may be allowed a housing loan of Rs 10 lakh in case he or she furnishes a certificate from competent authority to that effect.
The recovery of the loan along with interest shall be made in monthly installments not exceeding 60 from the salary bills of the members. However, in case the amount of loan along with interest is not liquidated during the tenure of the member, the amount of installments shall be fixed at such rate to restrict the number of installments to 60, the Rules said.
In case the member does not become entitled to pension under Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Members Pension Act, 1984, the amount shall be recovered from him/his legal heirs and successors in such monthly installments as may be determined by the sanctioning authority.
After completing all the formalities defined in these Rules, these 47 Members of 12th Legislative Assembly obtained house building advance and even furnished personal bonds that they will repay the loan and 4% rate of interest per annum. These former MLAs were supposed to clear the loan along with the interest in monthly installments not exceeding 60.
However, even after the lapse of several years and the timeframe fixed in the Rules, these 47 Members of 12th Legislative Assembly have not liquidated the house building advance.
This has been revealed by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) in the J&K Legislative Assembly Secretariat Qazi Mushtaq Ahmed in response to the application filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005 by Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed.
The former MLAs who were given Rs 20 lakh each as house building advance on different dates but have failed to clear the same are Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh, Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, Mubarak Gul, Mohammad Khalil Bandh, Er Abdul Rashid, Neelam Kumar Langeh, G M Saroori, R S Pathania, Aijaz Ahmed Mir, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, Abdul Majid Larmi and Mohammad Amin Bhat.
Likewise, the former MLAs who have failed to clear Rs 10 lakh each given as house building advance are Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, Noor Mohammad Sheikh, Kuldeep Raj, Javed Hassan Baig, Abdul Hussain Ansari, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, Ch Mohammad Akram, Abdul Rahim Rather (Kokernag), Sunil Kumar Sharma, Dina Nath Bhagat, Asiea Naqash, Daleep Singh, Altaf Ahmad Wani, Bali Bhagat, Molvi Imran Raza Ansari, Abdul Majid Padder, Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Usman Abdul Majid and Haji Abdul Rashid Dar.
Mohd Yousuf Tarigami, Ch Lal Singh, Abdul Rehman Veeri, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Javed Ahmad Rana, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Ch Zulfkar Ali, Shamima Firdous, Vikar Rasool Wani, Mehbooba Mufti, Abdul Haq Khan and Ch Sukhnandan Kumar have failed to clear Rs 5 lakh house building advance granted in their favour by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat.
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