District Magistrate Kangra has issued a notice under Section 118 of the Land Tenancy Act to the Tibetan Children Village (TCV) located at Darati village in Palampur sub-division.
The notice has been issued to five persons in whose name the land on which the school building has been brought up, was purchased. It is learned that the notice had been issued on the plea that the authorities running the TCV had bought land in the name of locals that amounted to benami transaction.
In case the transaction was proved to be benami, the land on which the TCV had been brought up could be vested in the name of the government.
The said school building is not the only property owned by Tibetans in Kangra district where allegations of benami transactions have been levelled. In the recent past the DM vested the Trilokpur Monastery Association with Karmapa sect in the name of the government.
The monastery was brought up on land bought in the name of Seva Devi Negi, a resident of Kinnaur district of Himachal. The Enforcement Directorate authorities had also conducted an enquiry to know about sources through which funds were sourced for creating the infrastructure of the monastery.
Most of the Tibetan properties, but for those in the name of Dalai Lama Society, are either benami transactions or encroachments on government land. In Dharamsala area, over 200 cases of encroachments on forest land have been registered against Tibetans. The cases are continuing in various courts, but hardly any action has been taken to remove the encroachments.
Even about 78 properties owned by the Tibetan government-in-exile have been brought up on benami properties. Previous Congress government had adopted a policy to regularise the said properties owned by the Tibetan government-in-exile. However, the present BJP government has not moved ahead with the policy.
