Activists flag concern over poor upkeep of Wakf Survey records

Hyderabad: In what is seen as official apathy when it comes to maintenance of important records pertaining to Wakf, the entire collection of records of Survey Commissioner of Wakf, some of which are 50 to 60 years old, lie in a neglected condition. It has been more than a year since the construction of the new Secretariat building, but the documents which were relocated then to New MLA Quarters in Adarsh Nagar remain locked and unattended in a slowly-decaying apartment.

When The Hans India tried to find out the existing office of the Commissioner, it was found that following the merger with the Waqf Board, there is no official currently heading it. The records which were shifted at the time of demolition of the Old Secretariat remain in a flat, in the premises of New MLA Quarters, which can hardly be located.

The door of the locked flat has a paper slip attached and written ‘Survey Commissioner of Wakfs’ along with the mobile number of a caretaker. Despite attempts to contact, the caretaker failed to respond.

With the State’s Wakf Board already losing scores of court cases related to prime lands, mostly in the city and with increased pace after formation of Telangana, there is a rising concern about the protection of the existing records – be it within the Wakf Board in the Haj House building or the documents under the Survey Commissioner of Wakf.

According to sources, the department has been engaged in the Survey of Wakf lands ever since Telangana was integrated with the State of AP in 1950s. The records pertaining to the first survey which was completed in the 1970s still remain amongst the collection. Based on this survey, a Gazette was also published.

However, the second survey which was taken up later was almost completed in the 1990s but was not published owing to some technical issues like enactment of the new Waqf Act in 1995. Hence the publishing of the second survey under the Unified AP was never materialised. This was the same year when the Assembly’s House Committee report had come to the conclusion that there was 1,33,209 acres of land belonging to Wakf in Telangana alone.

Former Wakf Board member, Moulana Abul Fateh Syed Bandagi Badshah Quadri has been demanding that all the records be digitised. He represented the government about the issue and urged that the time has come for a survey to be undertaken by the new State government.

He said that it should focus on the institutions which are left over and have to be published under Gazette in earlier surveys.

“The Survey Commission should complete whatever was left out of the earlier survey. Moreover, the government should make arrangements for safeguarding the existing records. On several occasions, I urged the government to digitise all the existing records on the lines of documents in State Archives,” he told The Hans India.

Meanwhile, some activists while referring to earlier freak accidents where the government had lost documents to fire mishaps have raised concern citing the importance of the documents.

These records could prove the point in favour of Wakf in Courts against the encroachment attempts.

“Since the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has promised to protect Wakf lands, it is his responsibility also to safeguard all these documents. It is also high time that the State government initiates survey of the Wakf lands before more property is lost to encroachers,” demanded Mohd Habeebuddin, an activist.