[Reader-list] Arundhati’s Pachmarhi house declared illegal

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Arundhati’s Pachmarhi house declared illegal***Milind
Ghatwai<http://www.indianexpress.com/columnist/milindghatwai/>
**
Indian Express

Link -
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Arundhati-s-Pachmarhi-house-declared-illegal/718384
*

Writer-activist Arundhati Roy on Tuesday lost a crucial battle to save her
bungalow in Pachmarhi, the picturesque hill station in Madhya Pradesh.

A sub-divisional magistrate held that the plot on which the bungalow was
built in the 1990s is a notified forest area, where sale or purchase of
property is banned.

SDM (Piparia) B Kirangopal told The Indian Express that Section 18 of the
Forest Act allows only hereditary passage of ownership.

The writer’s filmmaker husband Pradeep Kishan had purchased the plot in
Bariam in the early 1990s, from a villager. The couple visits the bungalow
once in a while.

Aradhana Seth, sister of author Vikram Seth, was among three other owners
who were also given notices by the deputy tehsildar, saying the properties
were illegal.

The four had challenged the order in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, saying
that the bungalows stood on revenue land and not forest land. The high court
recently asked the petitioners to go through a proper channel, which meant
they had to file an appeal before the SDM (Piparia).

-- 
Aditya Raj Kaul

India Editor
The Indian, Australia <http://www.theindian.net.au/>

Blog: http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/