Representative image of empty house.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: The Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI) visited Bengaluru earlier this week to survey and take possession of the immovable assets left behind by people who have taken the citizenship of Pakistan and China.
There are 24 enemy properties in Karnataka, of which six are in Bengaluru.
Under the Enemy Property Act 1968, which came into being after the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars in 1962 and 1965, the CEPI is the owner of assets that are declared as ‘enemy property’. There are 9,406 such properties across the country, said to be worth a staggering Rs 1 lakh crore, belonging to people who migrated to Pakistan and China following the wars.
The CEPI wants to take possession of these properties, though it may give the state government the first chance to lease them for public purposes.
Dayananda K A, deputy commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district, told DH that CEPI representatives from Mumbai regional office came to the city to assess the “position” of these properties.
“We were orally informed that the state government can submit a proposal to take these properties on a long-term lease. If the property is not required by us, they plan to auction it,” he said.
A majority of the 24 enemy properties, situated in districts Bengaluru Urban, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Udupi and others, are occupied by private persons. “When we inspected the properties, we found people running businesses such as petrol pumps and hotels on the plots declared as enemy properties,” the IAS officer said.
Prime areas
In Bengaluru, the six enemy properties — totalling close to 1.5 lakh square feet and valued at least Rs 500 crore — are situated in Raj Bhavan Road, Vittal Mallya Road and Victoria Road. Of the four individuals who owned these properties, three left for Pakistan and one took the citizenship of China after the wars between India and these two countries.
According to documents, ‘enemy’ property situated in Raj Bhavan Road is spread over 1.23 lakh square feet and belongs to a single individual. The remaining properties range between 950 square feet to 7,895 square feet.
As per the new guidelines introduced by the Union Home Ministry, the deputy commissioners have been given the powers to evict the occupants of enemy properties before initiating the process of auctioning them. In March last year, the Centre started the process of eviction and sale of enemy properties across the country.