New Delhi: Delhi Government today started
thorough scrutiny of all the sale and purchase of properties
left behind by people who moved to Pakistan during Partition.
The move comes days after an alleged nexus between local
land mafia and a Dubai-based group to grab such a property to
set up a luxury hotel in the city was exposed.
A top official of the office of Custodian General of
Enemy Properties in Mumbai, responsible for taking care of all
such properties, held a meeting with top officials of the
revenue department of the city government to begin the process
to examine the deals involving 'enemy properties'.
An enemy property is one that has been vacated by a
person who moved to Pakistan during partition and is now under
the government's hold.
In an urgent order, the government on Tuesday had
completely banned sale and purchase of properties vacated by
people who moved to Pakistan during Partition.
The government has already identified 200 such properties
for carrying out detailed scrutiny.
It had also frozen the land deal between some alleged
local mafia elements and a Dubai-based hotel chain, claimed to
have "questionable antecedents", to grab the 'enemy property'
near the historic Jama Masjid to set up a 100-room hotel.
Indicating a bigger racket involving land mafias to grab
'enemy properties' in the city, Revenue Minister Raj Kumar
Chauhan had said "guilty will not spared."
"I have asked for detail records of all these properties
as it is our responsibility to protect the properties which
belong to the Central government," he said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 23:42