Patna,(BiharTimes): Thanks to the mad rush for real estate and flats many times more people are killed in Bihar for property every year in comparison to any other state or Union Territory of the country.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) a total of 3,618 people were killed in the state over property disputes in four years between 2008 and 2011.

The authorities are in a bind as to whether to highlight this as an achievement or it is a reflection of a poor social and law and order condition in the state, yet there is no denying the fact that in the last few years the sudden rise in the land and flat prices have contributed greatly to the rise in this crime. What is of more concern is that there is steady rise in such killing.

A comparative data shows that if 769 people were killed in property disputes in the state in 2004. The figure shot up to 1,041 in 2011. It was 825 in 2008, 836 in 2009 and 916 in 2010.

Now take the case of Uttar Pradesh, a much larger state with social-economic condition somewhat similar to Bihar. It witnessed only 138 such murders in 2011 and Madhya Pradesh 332.

The figures suggest that property disputes used to cause more bloodshed even in the past too. In many cases the killings take place within family or among close relatives too.