Kashmir’s prominent business family, Neudos, faces bulldozer during government drive against ‘encroachers’

Muzaffar Shah, whose party Awami National Conference is part of the Gupkar alliance, tried to stop the bulldozer by standing in the front, with revenue papers

Authorities demolish a structure, allegedly encroached by Awami National Conference chief Muzaffar Shah in Srinagar on January 31, 2023. | Photo Credit: Nissar Ahmad

The J&K administration on Tuesday retrieved over 494 kanals (36.75 acres) of land from alleged illegal encroachers in capital Srinagar, which included two hotels and a plot of land under the occupation of the prominent Neudos family, also the in-laws of National Conference (NC) founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.

Tehsildar Moin Kakroo said 40 kanals (five acre) of ‘State land’ was illegally occupied by the Neudos Hotel owner and was retrieved at M.A. Road area, in the posh colony of Srinagar. However, the Neudos accused the Revenue department of retrieving the plot of land “that still has a 70-year lease”.

“We had given the Neudo Hotel to the ITC many, many years ago so that outside investment is able to create jobs for the locals. However, without any notice the Revenue officials on Tuesday came to the residential area with bulldozers. We have had the land under the family’s occupation since 1885. There was no question of political favour as no political party, for that matter even the NC, had not come into existence,” Ms. Neudo, grand child of Michael Harry Neudo, an European who owned a chain of hotels in undivided India in the 19th century, said. Harry Neudo had married Mirjan, a local, and whose daughter Akbar Jehan married Sheikh Abdullah.

Muzaffar Shah, whose party Awami National Conference (ANC) is part of the Gupkar alliance, tried to stop the bulldozer by standing in the front, with revenue papers. “I want to tell the tehsildar, J&K Lieutenant Governor, Prime Minister and Home Minister that Sheikh Abdullah was not even born when the family had this land. A wrong impression is being given out deliberately. What these people are doing is something disastrous,” Mr. Shah, who also shared the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu recently, said.

Plots sealed

The J&K administration has sealed a number of land plots and properties of politicians in south Kashmir, with many of the politicians associated with the Peoples Democratic Party and NC, in its latest drive against alleged encroachers of ‘State’ land in the Union Territory (UT).

Mohammad Aijaz, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, said, “Tehsildars and their teams will continue the anti-encroachment drives in their respective jurisdictions as per the standing instructions with added zeal and dedication so that all State/Kahcharie land is retrieved.”

According to the officials, two hotels, the Hotel In and the Hotel Goodwill Commercial-cum-residential hotel, were also sealed in Srinagar. “In Khanyar tehsil, these hotels were constructed illegally over one kanals and 11 marlas of land in Brari Nambal were sealed and taken in possession under the supervision of Tehsildar, Khanyar, Aailya Tabasum,” a government spokesman said.