Ministry of Home Ministry (Files)
The Union Home Ministry has initiated the process of monetisation of more than 9,400 enemy properties by issuing guidelines and directing the office of the custodian to submit a list of all such movable and immovable assets within three months, officials said. A valuation committee at the district level, headed by district magistrate, and an inter-ministerial disposal committee, headed by an additional secretary, have been set up by the ministry so that the process could be completed in a time-bound manner.
The move comes after amendment of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act 2017 and the Enemy Property (Amendment) Rules, 2018, which ensured that heirs of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition and later will have no claim over properties left behind in India.
The enemy properties were those left behind by the people who took citizenship of Pakistan and China. There are 9,280 properties left behind by Pakistani nationals and 126 properties left behind by Chinese nationals, a ministry official said. The government has vested these properties in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, an office instituted under the central government.
The office of the custodian should submit a list of all enemy properties to the Centre, the Home Ministry has said in a notification. “A list of all vested enemy properties (movable and immovable) shall be prepared by the Custodian for its submission to the central government within three months from the publication of this order,” it said. “The estimated value of all enemy properties is approximately Rs 1 lakh crore,” Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had told Rajya Sabha earlier.