Hyderabad: While encroachment of Wakf land comes in myriad forms, one of the more unique ones is this family which has been staying in a mausoleum situated inside a graveyard belonging to the Dargah Hazrat Ujale Shah in Saidabad for many years.
The dargah has properties in Surveys No. 255, 255/1, 255/2, 255/3, 255/4, 255/5 and 256 of Saidabad measuring approximately 28 acres and 29 guntas. These were granted in favour of the then mutawalli as conditional inam.
Apart from this, the dargah also has 67 acres and 34 guntas dry land in Survey no. 154, 155,156 and 158 and 8 acres and 15 guntas wet land in Surveys no. 159, 160, 161 & 162 in Ghatkesar village of Medchal-Malkajgiri district.
Most parts of these properties have been encroached upon, and houses and commercial establishments have come up on the dargah land.
Around the graveyard illegal kiosks were erected. Inside the boundary of the graveyard is a big mausoleum which a family has converted into a dwelling unit. The family has covered the arches with clay walls and cloth curtains.
Activist M.K. Hasan said a decade ago the Wakf Board prepared notices under Section 54 (1) of the Wakf Act, but the then inspector-auditor and did not serve it on the encroachers. No action had been taken against the errant employee.
Neither Wakf officials nor the mutawalli has shown any interest in removing the encroachment, Mr Hasan alleged. He said if the officials had performed their duty, no one would have dared encroach on Wakf land. Local traders are using the graveyard as dumping yard.
