Hyderabad: Wakf lands need to be freed from clutches of encroachers

Hyderabad: Various social, voluntary organisations and Minorities' activists held a round table conference and discussed the Wakf problems and future action plan to free encroached lands from land mafia.

They further demanded the government to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court regarding the lands of Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali. According to them, many lapses and anomalies were observed in the recent Supreme Court's decision which said that once a property was declared as Wakf property, it always remains as Wakf property only.

In the State, there was over 77,000 acres of wakf land, but now, hardly 20 per cent of the land remains while the encroachments continue. They said the Wakf Board had failed to save the major land in the city, especially lands at Manikonda Jagir under Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali, which was 1,662 acres of Rs 1 lakh crore worth.

"We demanded the Telangana government to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court regarding the 1,662 acres of Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali and return the Wakf lands to the Board. They warned that this issue will be made the subject of the next election and public opinion against the government will be smoothened," said Prof Anwar Khan. Rather than electing the chairman of Wakf Board, the State government must form a Commission and give judicial powers to guard the remaining Wakf properties in State, Prof Anwar suggested.

Speaking on the occasion, Wakf activist Nayeemullah Sharif said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised four times in a row on the floor of the Assembly to grant judicial powers to Wakf Board and still nothing has been done, and since 2017, the Wakf record room has been sealed.

"The reason behind the losing of major land cases in courts, including the 90 acres of land in Guttala Begumpet, 300 acres of land in Mir Momin Pahadi and now of 1,662 acres of land in Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali is due to the sealing of Wakf record room. It can also be said that the record room was sealed for gaining of major Wakf land records in the State," alleged Nayeemullah. "All promises made to the Minorities remain unfulfilled. Nothing has been done for Minorities and the TS Minority Finance Corporation remains closed for three years now. The construction of Islamic centre on 10 acres in Hitech city and several others are also pending. Nothing has been implemented in the present government for Minorities," said Sanaullah, president, Minorities Rights Protection Forum of Telangana (MRPFT).

Syed Sayeeduddin Tanveer, general secretary of MRPFT pointed out, "The honest government officials who were handling the Wakf Board cases providing records and evidences were transferred late night, due to which, the Board had lost many cases in the courts."