Friday 19 October 2012
The Jeddah Mayor's Office has recovered 600 land grants that were encroached on 10 years ago, handing them over to the engineering office, which in turn will notify the owners. The pieces of land, located in Dhaban in northern Jeddah and called Jawharat Al-Aros, were allocated by a royal decree as a grant to citizens. Their estimated commercial value is SR 150 million. Abdullah Sanad Al-Ghamdi, director of the Dhaban municipality, told Al-Madinah newspaper that his administration conducted a huge campaign to remove the encroachments on 600 plots land which were given as grants to citizens 10 years ago.
"There are another 500 parcels of land to be taken back in two months," he said. Al-Ghamdi said there were people who had fenced in these lands, claiming to have the deeds of ownership. "The people who claimed ownership of these lands prevented the engineering offices from handing the areas back to the legal owners. I assure you the municipality would never select lands for grant status before having first checked for ownership.
These people claiming ownership showed up after the municipality conducted a lottery to distribute the land among citizens," said Al-Ghamdi. Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, a land owner in Jawharat Al-Aros, said that after receiving his land, he was astonished to find out that it was fenced and there was another man claiming ownership. "When I inquired at the municipality, they told me I had to apply to be compensated, and that the process would take at least a year to complete.
I never applied for the compensation, but it now looks like my land is mine," said Mohammad Al-Ghamdi. He said that when the dispute arose, the land was worth SR 50,000, but now believes it is worth much more. Al-Madinah newspaper said the commercial value for each plot of land now is SR 250,000.
© Arab News 2012
