AWAAZ holds round table conference over Waqf lands

By Mohammed Abbas General Secretary AWAAZ Hyderabad: The state of Telangana has the most valuable waqf lands. There are 1869 Dargahs, 8521 Cemeteries, 3052 Mosques, 11056 Ashur Khanas, 6789 Chillas, 112 Takiyas and 2530 other Waqf Institutions Registered across the state.
There are 77,538.07 acres of waqf lands in the name of these total 33,929 waqf institutions in the State. Of that, 57423.91 acres of waqf land was encroached and only 20,114.16 acres remained on record as waqf land.
There are hundreds of cases running on this Wakf Lands as well. According to the Waqf Act of 1995, once waqfed property remains its waqf property for the rest of its life. The Supreme Court has also made the same point clear ‘Once Wakf fomeans always Wakf’.
However, waqf lands worth millions of crores have been encroached upon. Occupiers enjoy being illegally derailed. Wakf lands to be used for the upliftment of the Poor and Orphans are trapped in the pockets of the rich and the captives. At present the rest of the Wakf lands are also gradually being trapped in the occupied corals.
The High Court is in a state of limbo that the Wakf Board, which was set up to protect and manage Waqf assets, has become home to corruption. Politicians, Government officials, and waqf board officials are squandering lands worth lakhs of crores of rupees.In the former Medak district, only 128 acres remained out of 23910 acres of wakf land. In Rangareddy district, 13,485 acres of land was seized out of 14,708 acres.