Centre begins process of selling enemy properties

NEW DELHI: The government has initiated the process of sale of more than 9,400 enemy properties by issuing guidelines and directing the office of the custodian to submit the list of all such movable and immovable assets within three months.

The sale of enemy properties is expected to fetch around Rs 1 lakh crore for the government exchequer.

Officials said that the ministry of home affairs has also constituted a valuation committee at the district level, headed by the district magistrate, and an inter-ministerial disposal committee, headed by an additional secretary, so that the process could be completed in a time-bound manner.

The move comes after the amendment of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act 2017 and the Enemy Property (Amendment) Rules, 2018, which ensured that the heirs of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during partition and afterwards will have no claim over the properties left behind in India.

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 which belonged to 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 Central government, the MHA said.

“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.

For the purpose of valuation of the immovable enemy property, a valuation committee will be constituted at the district level with the district magistrate as the chairman besides two other official members.

The committee shall consider the circle rate of the area where the property is situated or a rate fixed by the district administration as a mode of valuation of the property along with other valuation modes.

The custodian will prepare and submit the state-wise list of the enemy properties along with their valuation to the Central government within one month from the date of receipt of the valuation report from the valuation committee. Among the 9,280 properties left behind by Pakistani nationals, the highest 4,991 properties are located in Uttar Pradesh followed by West Bengal which has 2,735 such estates. There are 487 such properties in Delhi. Among the 126 properties left behind by Chinese nationals, the highest 57 are located in Meghalaya followed by West Bengal with 29.