New Delhi: Home ministry has initiated the process for identifying in a bid to auction more than 9,000 ‘enemy properties’ which could be worth more than a whopping Rs 1 lakh crore.
There are as many as 9,400 such properties across the country which belonged to those people who had taken citizenship of either Pakistan or China.
The decision was taken following an amendment to the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act due to which heirs of those who went to Pakistan and China either during partition or even later did not have any legal validity over the property left behind by such people in the country.
Sources said during a recent high-level meeting officials told home minister Rajnath Singh that the survey process of as many as 6,289 such enemy properties had been finalised while that of the 2,991 remaining ones which were in the possession of the custodians would be completed shortly.
The home minister instructed the officials that properties whose survey had been completed should be auctioned at the earliest as it would provide the much needed financial resources to the Government since the estimated market value of such properties was more than '1 lakh crore.
In fact, in Pakistan such properties belonging to those who shifted to India during partition have already been auctioned by their government.
The home ministry has already directed the state governments, where such properties are located, to appoint nodal officers who would carry out the detailed process of locating, identifying the present occupants and estimating the market value of such properties.
Of the total 9,280 enemy properties across the country the maximum of 4,991 are in Uttar Pradesh while West Bengal has the second highest of 2,735 such properties. In New Delhi there are 487 of these enemy properties. Ministry officials claimed most of these properties in prime locations, most of which are now major commercial hubs.
