Last Updated on February 11, 2021 at 11:02 am
The Migrant Properties Act was brought way back in 1997 to keep an eye on the distress sale of migrant properties in Kashmir but it still being ignored consistently.
Sources said that thousands of kanals of migrants land has been sold in last two decades and Government has failed to declare the deal invalid according to the law. These deals are clearly violating the rules in the law.
According to the sources, the law has been quite unsuccessful in protecting the migrants leftover property in Kashmir. It is also the responsibility of District Development Committees to protect these properties and they have failed too in doing their job. DCs have failed to take any action against the defaulters and migrants properties kept on being sold.
Many complain that this law only exists on papers and authorities never take any proper action against those who have defied the rules. In some of the cases, there have been disputes recorded too between migrants and those who’ve bought the property as they failed to make full payments. Many such cases are ongoing in Revenue courts in Kashmir for many years.
There have been many cases too in which brokers have charged a hefty sum as commission from the migrants intending to purchase their land. They paid them an advance amount, took possession of the property and then never cared to pay the full amount back. Many such disputed cases have been pending for years, sources said.
In some cases, the property owners and even the purchasers have died but these cases are not yet resolved. The successive governments of the erstwhile state never cared enough to ensure that laws are implemented. According to the sources, most of the pandits who left their homes sold their properties in distress and the law has failed to avoid that.
