Akbaruddin Owaisi exposes shady underbelly of Wakf Board

Hyderabad: Leader of Majlis Legislature Party in Assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi on Friday demanded the government to order CBI or CID inquiry into the affairs of Wakf Board of the state.

Participating in the debate on the bills of Welfare departments, Akbar said that in Wakf Board one officer of superintendent cadre has been promoted as assistant secretary and his educational qualification was just SSC.

He said that there are several officials in the Wakf Board who have qualification of SSC and Intermediate and they have been posted in higher posts.

He said that the minimum qualification to become assistant secretary was graduation. He said that these officers have been drawing a salary from Rs 70,000 to Rs one lakh per month. He said that while there was no car for the Wakf Board, there were two drivers.

He said that the Wakf Board has not been collecting the rents properly on the lands being owned by it. Several persons have been enjoying the properties of it illegally. An editor of Urdu daily has constructed his house on the Wakf land.

Most of the Wakf lands have been encroached and no action has been taken to restore them to the Board. He said that the Wakf Board owns about 2,500 acres in Chengicherla and it has been enjoyed by private persons.

In the same way thousands of acres of land in the State have been occupied or enjoyed illegally. If the lands of the Wakf Board are restored to it, the Muslims did not need any help from the government.

He said that the number of employees in the Minorities Welfare department was 230 whereas the same in SC and ST departments was about 13,000.

Leader of Congress Legislature Party in Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka demanded the government to give an order to raise the reservations of the STs to 10 per cent.

He said that the reservations to SCs and STs should be given as per their ratio in the population.

He wanted the government to hold a special meeting on implementation of SC and ST sub plans. He said that the funds being given to the SC and ST welfare have been coming down.

Congress MLAs Sithakka and P Veeraiah demanded the government to allot 2BHK houses to the SCs and STs. They said that the welfare of the tribals has been neglected.

R and B and Housing minister V Prashant Reddy said that construction of about 1.50 lakh two bedroom houses would be completed soon. He said that tenders have been floated for 1.99 lakh houses, 39,000 have been completed in all aspects and construction of 1.10 lakh was nearing completion.

He said that new construction technologies have been used to construct 2BHK houses in Hyderabad. Nearly one lakh houses are under construction near Outer Ring Road of Hyderabad.

He said that a mega venture is coming up at Kollur where about 16,000 houses are being constructed. He said that the Centre share in the scheme was Rs 1,500 crore and state's share was Rs 6,500 crore.

SCs and Minorities Welfare minister K Eshwar said that soon a meeting of the SC and ST MLAs would be called and the implementation of the sub plan would be discussed.