Enemy Property for India (CEPI) in Bengal cut across social strata

Kolkata: From shoe shops to restaurants, orchards to iconic buildings, the office of Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI) has 2,786 properties spread over 13 districts of the state, according to official sources.

Of these, 2,735 are immovable assets of those who left these behind and took citizenship of Pakistan after partition or after the 1965 and 1971 wars with India.

The remaining 51 constitutes immovable properties of those who took Chinese citizenship in the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

Across India, the number of immovable enemy properties ranges from 9,280-9,406 belonging to Pakistan nationals and 126 of Chinese nationals, that have been declared and are vested in the CEPI.

However, as per the CEPI records around 5,866 properties are still remaining to be verified and declared as enemy properties in the country.

Apart from the immovable assets, the CEPI also has enemy shares of 257 listed companies and 327 unlisted ones.

According to CEPI, it also possesses gold and jewelry items worth around Rs 38 lakh. Late last month, the Centre constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to monitor the disposal of enemy properties, which are likely to fetch the exchequer of about Rs 1 lakh crore.

Following that, the CEPI has begun working on a pilot project in Bengal to study the nature, including the legal issues connected to the properties, before identifying the first batch that could go under the hammer.

West Bengal has the second-highest number of immovable enemy properties left by either Pakistani or Chinese nationals.

Uttar Pradesh (4,991) tops the list of Pakistani enemy properties, while Meghalaya (57) has the largest number of properties left behind by the Chinese.

Among the Bengal districts housing property of Pakistani nationals, Murshidabad (929) leads the pack, followed by Cooch Behar (542) and Bibhum (456).

According to government records, Haji Abdul Hamid, resident of Rajshahi district (now in Bangladesh) owns 207 of those properties, in Bhabta village of Murshidabad - the capital of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha during the rule of the Nawabs till the mid 18th century. (IANS)

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