SRINAGAR: 47 former members of the 12th Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, including the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, and Cabinet Ministers, have not been able to pay back the house building advance that the House Secretariat gave them several years ago, reports appearing in the media said.
As a result, the Government exchequer has suffered a loss of Rs 570 lakh, and despite specific rules to the contrary, no efforts have been made by relevant authorities to recover the funds.
The Housing Loan (to members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature) Rules, 1988, were established by the then-Governor of the former State through SRO 306, under the authority granted by Section 10 of the Salaries and Allowances of Members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Act, 1960. These rules, notified on September 22, 1988, granted members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature a Rs 5 lakh loan for home construction.
The Motor Car Advance (to Members of Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature) Rules, 1987, specify that if a member does not receive the eligible car advance, they may qualify for a housing loan of Rs. 10 lakhs, provided they furnish a certificate from an appropriate authority to that effect.
The loan balance and interest were to be repaid in no more than sixty monthly instalments from the members’ salary bills, with the rules stipulating that the number of instalments should be set to limit the total to 60 if the loan balance plus interest is not paid off during the member’s term.
If the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Members Pension Act, 1984, does not grant the member a pension, the money will be recovered from their legal heirs and successors in monthly amounts decided by the sanctioning body.
Despite securing a house-building advance and providing personal guarantees with an annual interest rate of 4 per cent, the 47 former members of the 12th Legislative Assembly have not completed the house-building project within the specified deadline outlined in the Rules.
Qazi Mushtaq Ahmed, the J&K Legislative Assembly Secretariat’s Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), disclosed this information in response to Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed’s Right to Information Act, 2005 application.
The former MLAs who received Rs 20 lakh each as a house building advance but failed to clear the same include 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.
Similarly, former MLAs who have failed to clear Rs 10 lakh each given as a house building advance include Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, Noor Mohammad Sheikh, Kuldeep Raj, Javed Hassan Baig, Abid 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.
Those who have not been able to repay the Rs 5 lakh house building advance include 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.
