Kolkata: Armed with a Supreme Court order, a team from the Union ministry of home affairs, guarded by two CRPF companies, surveyed a building built on a 44-cottah plot, which is under the Enemy Property Act, 1965, in Rajabazar, following complaints of encroachment.
In Feb, a survey was carried out by officials of the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), which functions under the MHA.The residents and shop owners were told to submit property tax to the MHA instead of KMC. Those found illegally occupying the place were told to either vacate the place or buy it at market rate from the MHA.
According to ministry sources, the property was notified as enemy property after its owner Abdul Kayyum moved to Pakistan during the Indo-Pak wars between 1965 and 1971. At 4,301, Bengal is said to have the highest number of enemy property after UP (5,361). Kolkata houses 96 such properties, many of them in prime locations.
Bappaditya Dutta, a deputy secretary of MHA, said they had faced opposition from the locals while conducting the survey in Feb. It led them to approach SC. “The govt plans to generate revenue from the property,” said the official.