80 per cent in enemy properties live free

More than 100 tenants occupying enemy properties in Lucknow have not paid rent since the past several years.

The matter came to light during a recently filed survey conducted by the state government.

According to Arun Kumar, sub-divisional magistrate, Lucknow, out of the 130 tenants occupying enemy properties in the state capital, only 25 were found paying rent regularly.

“The videography and photography of the properties was done during the survey, in which 15 properties were identified based on records available in the tehsil office. These 15 properties are in possession of 130 tenants and of these, only 25 are paying rent. There are about 15 more properties that have not been identified so far,” Mr Kumar said.

The district administration is now planning to identify these new properties that are not registered in the tehsil records. Mr Kumar said that the survey was done to identify enemy properties, to see if they were safe and had not been encroached.

The status of rent payment and ownership was also checked. The district administration said three lists are prepared regarding enemy properties.

The first is the process list which mentions buildings on which decision to declare them enemy property has yet to be taken, the second is a list of buildings declared enemy property and the third is of buildings coming under income cases (properties from which rent is being received).

The total area of enemy property in Lucknow Sadar tehsil is 29,646 square metres.

As per records of the custodian office, there are nine declared case properties in the city area.

None of these are registered with the tehsil office and as far as income case properties in the city area are concerned, there are eight out of which two were mentioned in the tehsil record.

The alleged illegal sale of enemy properties in the state capital is also been scrutinised.