The Telangana State Wakf Board (TSWB) has planned to break the whip on land grabbers by cancelling the registration of 300 properties after observing the illegal property transfers.

Govt Banned Illegal Property Registrations 

Wakf Board identified that some people in Rangareddy district and Hyderabad illegally transferred the properties to their names. TSWB Chairman Mohammed Saleem said these properties are situated in Mamidipally, Balapur and Dabeerpura. Of the 300 properties, the process for cancelling the registration and recovery of land from land grabbers has started.

On Wednesday, the board is meeting to take significant decisions on defending encroached waqf properties. A few months earlier, it is noted how some people illegally grabbed the waqf land and enjoyed the riches.

After the high court criticized the authorities for failing to evict the encroachers, the TSWB got into action. Waqf board officials said they intend to take over the properties not under the act and where the courts do not have a stay order.

Encroached Wakf Lands

A senior official said land grabbers had taken around 700 acres of land in Mamidipally. Similarly, the clutches of land grabbers include 100 acres in Balapur, 500 acres in Maheswaram belonging to the Muslim Maternity Hospital and over 100 acres in Kandukur. In certain instances, waqf land was mutated by the revenue authorities to private individuals and companies.

It is planning a property-wise inventory and status. Even if there is a court case, senior lawyers are hired to get back the property of waqf. Sources said that the TSWB authorities would like to show some progress in saving the waqf properties because the High Court hearing is coming up on December 17.

About 75 percent of waqf properties have been occupied in 50 years, as per official records. On the floor of the assembly, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao acknowledged that between 1963 and 2013, 57,000 acres of 77,000 acres of waqf land had gone into the hands of land sharks. The state government banned the registration of waqf and endowment land a few months ago and placed the properties under section 22A of the Indian Registration Act and placed them under the auto-lock system.

By: Shailaja K