Judicial Powers to Wakf Board can stop encroachments: TMWWPS

Gunfoundary: The Telangana Minorities Welfare and Wakf Protection Society (TMWWPS) on Monday announced a State-wide awareness campaign for protection of Wakf properties.

At a press conference, the society leaders stated that the campaign was aimed at protecting Wakf properties from being encroached by the land mafia, politicians and other socially prominent members of the community.

They urged the Telangana government to set up a Wakf Commissionerate and confer judicial powers to the Wakf Board.

The leaders stressed that such a move will also help in protecting and reclaiming hundreds of crores of encroached Wakf properties.

"The Telangana Wakf Board has 33,929 institutions located across several districts in the State. These institutions account for 77,538.07 acres of land.

Of this, 57,423.91 acres have been encroached upon," said society president Abdul Haq Qamar.

He claimed that the income generated from proper utilisation of these properties would be sufficient to provide education and improve the social economic status of the entire Muslim community in the State.

General secretary Mateen Shareef and joint secretary Mohd Shakeel stressed the matter of digitisation of Wakf Board records and its synchronisation with the Endowments department to solve mystery surrounding some important properties, particularly after bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, with original records of some properties still remaining with AP, while referring to the AP State Wakf Board's official letter in 2006 which sought copies of records from Book of Endowment from Commissioner of Endowments department to ascertain the exact registered Wakf institutions.

Aziz Pasha, a former MP, also demanded strict and stringent punishment to Wakf land encroachers under non-bailable sections.

The Wakf properties have a tremendous financial potential to ameliorate the status of the community, the leaders said, adding that society is operating under the guidance of Justice B Chandra Kumar and a senior high court advocate Mirza Nisar Ahmed Baig Nizami to effect an impactful change with the State-wide campaign and protection of Wakf properties.

Mohammed Moinuddin, vice-president, City Jamiat Ulema, called for strict action by the government.

In the meet, Justice Chandra Kumar insisted that an amendment to the Wakf Act needs to be incorporated by the Central government in order to give judicial power.

High court advocate Nisar Ahmed Baig Nizami said that wakf properties should be matched with Revenue records.