People plead JPC to release their lands from Waqf

Many of these complaints were about wrong entries of farmers’ land into the Dharani portal as Waqf property.

JPC member and Mahbubnagar MP D.K. Aruna said that members from over 35 organisations submitted their representations, including people from Boddupalli, Kondurg, Gajwel and Mahbubnagar. Over one hundred farmers, many of them tribals from Pichragari Tanda, Kohir, Kaveli, Dhanasiri, Jharashangam, Raikod and Kothur (K) villages in Zaheerabad district, under the aegis of Rythu Hakkula Sadhana Samithi, gave representations to JPC chairman Jagadaambika Pal.

The farmers said over 13,500 acres of their land, which has been under their control since their great grandfathers, and for which they had pattadar passbooks, were wrongly shown as Waqf land during the BRS rule in the Dharani portal. After this, the sale and purchase of the land was prohibited by the revenue authorities and the farmers feared that they could losing their land.

Devichand, a farmer from Pichragadi thanda told Deccan Chronicle that around 3,276 acres of land from his village, which has been under the possession of the tribals for many generations, had been wrongfully entered as Waqf land. “We are facing the toughest time of our lives,” he said.

Farmers from Kongarakurd in Maheshwaram mandal submitted a representation that 607 acres of land, belonging to several farmers, were included as Waqf land. Jangaiah Goud said that their village was once jagir land. After the merger of Hyderabad State into the Indian union, jagirs were abolished. They urged the JPC to see that the amendments to the status of these land are accepted.

Shia community leader Mir Firasath Ali Baqri also gave a representation, expressing concern among the community over the protection of ashoorkhanas and Shia Waqf properties. He supported the Waqf Bill but urged special rights to protect the properties of the Shia community.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad alleged that the existing Waqf Act had several discriminatory features and the boards took unilateral decisions and acquired large patches of lands through wrongful methods. The judiciary’s role had been reduced by the existing legislation, said VHP leader Ramakrishna Kulkarni said.

All India Milli Council legal cell convener Afsar Jahan opposed amendments to the Waqf Act. She questioned how a collector could decide the title of the property. She wondered why the government was not bringing similar amendments as to the Hindu Endowment Act.