Hyderabad: No clear count of wakf properties

Hyderabad: The All India Muslim Minority Organisation has criticised the state government for not completing the second survey of wakf institutions even though 19 years have elapsed since the first such exercise was held. No effort has been made in this regard despite the Wakf Act stipulating that a survey of various wakf bodies be held every 10 years.

AIMMO chairman Syed Muqtar Hussain and former Minority Finance Corporation director M. A. Siddiqui recalled that the first survey was conducted from 1960 to 1974. The second survey started in 2001, but the Survey Commission of Wakf has not yet completed the task. Telangana has wakf lands spread over 77,630 acres. But more than 37,630 acres of this land has been encroached. Muqtar Hussain said in a recent survey of the Telangana government, the Wakf Board failed in getting wakf properties registered on revenue records. He alleged that neither the government nor the board are sincere in protecting wakf properties. This is mainly because the Wakf Board has insufficient staff. The office of Wakf Commissioner of Auqaf has been closed down. The AIMMO chairman said CM KCR had constituted a Task Force under former IAS officer S. K. Sinha three years ago to inquire into the irregularities in wakf management. But the Sinha committee is yet to submit its report.