Residents say realty agent buying properties of Hindus and selling them off to Muslims in violation of Disturbed Areas Act. Residents of Mogalwada in Vadodaras old city area have alleged that some real estate agents were buying houses of Hindus looking for distress sale of their properties,which they were then selling off to Muslims in violation of Disturbed Areas Act that prohibits transfer of property among members of different communities without prior sanction of the collector. Over hundred residents of Ladwada locality in Mogalwada area submitted a memorandum to collector Vinod Rao Thursday,asking him to look into a similar violation in which a Hindu owner of a property sold off his house to a group of real estate agents operating under the banner,Three Start Enterprises. The group constitutes of three members,one of them being a Muslim. The area falls under the Disturbed Areas Act,1991,which prohibits a Hindu from selling his property to a Muslim,and vice versa,without prior sanction of the collector. Residents said Three Star Enterprises allegedly purchased a Hindu property in the name of Hindu members of the group,which was sold off to the Muslim member. People think the property is going to a Hindu since it is purchased in the name of the Hindu member of the Three Star Enterprises,but the fact is that the purchasers give the property to their Muslim partner,who brings in Muslims to live in the flats. This should be seen as the violation of the Act, corporator Chandrakant Thakkar said. Middlemen and touts purchase Hindu houses and then transfer them to Muslims through clandestine deals. This may create communal disharmony in the area. We have therefore appealed to the collector to look into the matter and prevent such deals, Prashant Vyas,a resident,said. The area is Hindu-dominated,but has a sizable Muslim population,residents said. We believe such transactions could disturb the communal fabric of the locality and could cause communal tension, another resident,Md Rafiq Bangrawala,said. I have been living in this area for the last three decades. Both the communities have lived peacefully in our locality. But any outsiders coming here could cause disturbance, another resident,Ismael Bangrawala,said. Residents of Chhitakhan Gali,also in Mogalwada,have raised objections to a Muslim-only 30-flat residential project coming up in the area which they said violated Disturbed Areas Act. The land on which the residential project is coming up once used to be a godown of an industrialist belonging to Hindu community. Now,a Muslim builder is coming up with the housing project, said Sunilbhai Soni,a resident. The builder,Sarfaraz Sheikh,refuted the claims. People are not ready to accept a Muslim-only residential project coming up in their area and are therefore raising objections. We have got all the documents that show the land belonged to a Muslim and there is no violation of the Disturbed Areas Act, he said.
