Algerian authorities to take over colonial real estates

The Director of real estates at the finance ministry Mohammed Himour has indicated that his services have counted 24 thousand and 3 hundred empty units dating back to the colonial period noting that the authorities are launching a procedure to retrieve them for the benefit of the state as of January 2013.

“ Some leases go back to the colonial period and other as far as 1900 left by their original owners for real. In this case, the Algerian legislation consider them as empty units eligible for retrieval” ,he said.

M Himour went on saying that the census operation is not completed yet in some provinces but promised to speed up the pace in order to finish with it at earliest.

Talking yesterday in a press conference at the ministry, he has asserted that some administrative parties have shown reluctance to carry out their task in the past, leading to accumulation of difficulties as time went on.

“ Several governors declined taking appropriate measures concerning empty real estates” , he declared to Echourouk.

He went on saying” Maybe the governors of the 1960s and 1970s were not aware of the seriousness of the issue convinced that the colonials that left the country will not comeback again, but the things took alarming proportions during the during the 1980s when the former owners took advantage of the situation in order to either comeback to Algeria or ask for their real estates”.

The issue is set to be put on the agenda during the official visit of the French president François Hollande to Algeria on Wednesday, noting that the interior minister Dahou Oueld kablia has already mentioned 20 cases at press conference held during the visit of his opposite number Manuel Valse two months ago.