Anti land grabbing cell need of the hour
It’s high time the Union territory of Puducherry passed an anti-land grabbing bill and established an anti-land grabbing cell along the lines of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra to prevent rowdy elements grabbing land and properties of people, including Indian-born French citizens here. Of late
Published -
Dec 22, 2017 4:18 AM
It’s high time the Union territory of Puducherry passed an anti-land grabbing bill and established an anti-land grabbing cell along the lines of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra to prevent rowdy elements grabbing land and properties of people, including Indian-born French citizens here. Of late, there has been a spurt in incidents of land and property grabbing in the Union territory, especially after the real estate prices shot up in the last two decades. Last week, owners of more than 40 plots and houses, whose properties were grabbed by notorious rowdy A K Ramesh alias Senthil with political patronage and support of territorial officials, recovered their allegedly “grabbed properties’’ with the help of lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi. More than a month ago, an India-born French citizen, whose hotel in a prime locality had allegedly been grabbed by a group of influential people, was brutally attacked by an unidentified gang when he entered his property armed with a court order in his favour. The victims of land grabbing were often made to run from pillar to post as the nexus among anti-social elements, a section of police, revenue and civic officials with political support ensured that their genuine grievances remain unattended. A victim, who recovered her property last week, recounted how the rowdy challenged her to lodge a complaint against him five years ago when she was forced to vacate her property. The short-staffed police force that has been burdened with routine duty of maintaining law and order will not be in a position to probe land grabbing complaints that are both of civil and criminal in nature. An expert in land administration from Pondicherry University, with more than two decades of administrative and academic experience, said police force will not be in a position to verify the titles of the properties with the revenue department and to confirm the ownership with the registration department. Hence there was a strong need for a stringent and exclusive anti-land grabbing cell with the much-required enforcement power. “Police blindly declared our complaints as civil disputes and advised us to approach the court as it was not within their jurisdiction,” said another victim. Considering the uniqueness of land grabbing issues, late chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa had passed an executive order and established anti-land grabbing cells across the state to exclusively probe complaints and provide immediate relief.
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