Karmapa monastery land to be owned by Himachal Pradesh govt

DHARAMSALA: The ownership rights of the property of Gyuto monastery at Sidhbari about 8 kilometres from here was transferred in the name of Himachal Pradesh government on Tuesday which is the temporary residence of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyene Trinley Dorje, head of the Kagyu sect and the only living Buddhist Lama to be recognised by China and as well as the Dalai Lama.

The district revenue team, including Dharamsala teshildar Naresh Sharma visited the monastery and completed the necessary revenue proceedings. Dharamsala tehsildar said that the proceedings were brief as there was no objection from any of the parties involved in the transfer of property. He said that officials of the Karmapa monastery cooperated fully with the revenue officials leading to a smooth exercise pertaining to transfer of the property rights, including attestation of the mutation of the monastery. Earlier, the property of the monastery had been registered under the fake names of Arun Dorje (Mcleodganj)and Prem Singh of Bhuntar(Kullu).

However, despite the transferring of the property of monastery, there would be no immediate physical possession or takeover of the monastery by state government, said Kangra deputy commissioner RS Gupta. He said that transfer of ownership right of the monastery was normal revenue proceeding.

This development comes in the aftermath of the investigations being made into the Karmapa monastery case pertaining to seizure of large amount of foreign currency including, Chinese yuan last month by state police during raids conducted by it from January 26 to January 28 which brought into focus the benami land deals carried out in the state, including Kangra, and involved exiled Tibetans.

The recovery of such a huge haul of foreign currency had sent the alarm bells ringing among the security agencies, including state police.

There are around 100 benami properties in Kangra district alone. There were 73 benami land deals pertaining to Tibetans as per the list provided by central Tibetan administration based here to the state government which are being investigated by investigative agencies.

The non-Himachalis are not entitled to purchase land in the hill state under section 118 of land tenancy and reforms act. The mushrooming of the benami properties especially in the recent years had been indicative of the growing clout of land mafia in the hill state.