Surveying of enemy properties in U.P. likely to speed up

With about 2,250 out of 5,936 existing enemy properties located in U.P. being occupied, the main focus of the State in the initial phase is on properties devoid of any litigation

Uttar Pradesh state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. File. | Photo Credit: AP

With the Centre having launched a survey to identify enemy properties across the country as a precursor to monetising them, Uttar Pradesh — where a large number of these properties are located — is preparing to speed up its own survey, removing encroachments and assessing the value of such properties in the State.

Enemy properties are those once owned by people who took Pakistani or Chinese citizenship after India’s wars with those countries. The Enemy Property Act, 1968 enables the appropriation of such properties, with ownership passing to the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), a department of the Home Ministry.

Preparing for auction

The U.P. government has sent a list of such properties to the districts where they are located, in order to assess their value. U.P. officials are also removing temporary encroachments or occupancy of these properties, so that they can be auctioned in the future.

“We are working on a two prompt strategy. Some of the properties are under litigation and some of the properties were not followed properly by the Custodian of Enemy Properties for India (CEPI) office,” Pragya Pandey, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Bakshi Ka Talab in Lucknow, told The Hindu. “We are targeting such properties which are devoid of any litigation and which can be easily taken up and could be ready for being monetised. We are in the process of sending the monetised value of such properties [to CEPI], so they can be auctioned,” the official added.

Already occupied

About 2,250 out of the 5,936 existing enemy properties located in U.P. are occupied. Of these, 1,467 such properties are occupied by a mafia or by illegal occupants. Co-occupants have taken over 369 enemy properties, while 424 of them are occupied by tenants who have been given the properties on rent at nominal rates by successive State governments.

Out of 361 enemy properties in the State capital of Lucknow alone, 105 are occupied by tenants who got them on lease at a very minimal rate. Likewise in Muzaffarnagar, out of 274 such properties, 85 are occupied by tenants.

Lucknow also has the highest number of properties where co-occupants are in possessionis. Shamli district has the highest number of illegal encroachments on enemy properties, with 268 out of 482 properties under illegal occupation, while Kaushambi district has 197 out of 456 Enemy properties illegally occupied.

Dealing with encroachments

Earlier in November, during a meeting of the State Home department, U.P. CM Yogi Adityanath issued guidelines to ensure the security of such properties located in different districts, and decided to appoint a principal secretary-level officer as a nodal officer to supervise the matters related to encroachment of enemy property.

After the India-Pakistan war of 1965, the government of India enacted the Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order and formed the CEPI department to look after properties left behind by those who migrated to Pakistan or any other country with which India has a hostile relationship.

In 2020, the Central government formed a Group of Ministers (GoM), led by Home Minister Amit Shah, to monitor the disposal of such properties across India. It was also decided that committees headed by senior officials would be set up for the disposal of immovable enemy properties vested in CEPI under the 1968 law.