Hyderabad: Mapping process of TS Wakf properties hits a pause button

Hyderabad: Even as the State Government assured geo-tagging of the properties, it remains standstill. Moreover, on several occasions the State government is seen vowing to save the Wakf properties. The 'record room' pertaining to the Wakf lands like Gazette copies remained inaccessible to even officials of the department as it remained sealed for more than three years.

According to the Wakf activists, the geo-tagging or GIS/GPS mapping of wakf properties is pending in Telangana State and the digitalisation is also incomplete. "Recently, the State lost the records of more than 2100 wakf properties which are encroached by now.

Moreover, the board failed to encroach on 2,186 encroached wakf properties as the record room remained sealed for more than 3 years," said Mohammed Habeebuddin, wakf activist.

As per the Ministry of Minority Affairs Government of India, the digitalisation of all the State Wakf Boards has been completed and GIS/GPS mapping of more than 95 per cent Wakf properties has been completed, but whereas in Telangana state, no mapping has been done, as the State houses a large number of Wakf lands with thousands of acres," he pointed.

The government was claiming that it was 77,000 acres of land of which only 41,538 acres is recorded till the new revelation was made by the Government that 57,000 acres from 77,000 was encroached upon, making everyone perplexed.

"More than 1 lakh acres of land has vanished from the records during the past three decades and who is responsible for this. The digitalisation of these properties is incomplete and is yet to start the geo-tagging," he added,

He alleged that hundreds of acres of Wakf land are under control by Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC), which has no income and the several acres of land is also occupied by the State government, with no record.

"Around 550 crores as compensation is due to last six years and present estimation of occupied Wakf property by the State government is thousands of crores, which is not yet recorded by Wakf Board," he alleged.

Whereas, the member of Central Wakf Council (CWC) Haneef Ali said that the CWC also expressed concerns during their meeting with the State's Wakf Board.

They demanded that the government immediately unseal the record room and sought details on the extent of State's Wakf properties, as it is against the Wakf Act to seal the record room by the state government.

He said that the digitalisation of wakf properties has been completed in state and the GIS/GPS mapping was started but was on hold due to ongoing pandemic. "The CWC has already given a representation to the agency working on the mapping of properties to start the process and complete as early as possible."