Hyderabad, Feb 12: Now alerting the authorities on encroachment of Wakf properties may fetch you a good reward. Authorities have decided this in tune with the decision to award persons alerting about the encroachment of government lands.
State government is contemplating to hold a meeting with Wakf Board for constitution a committee for overseeing the whole process. This committee may involve concerned citizens as members.
Similarly, conferring judicial powers to state Wakf Board was also on its cards. However, a final decision would be taken after Law Department scrutiny and chief minister’s nod.
Wakf Board did not have any power to take executive action against the encroachments and it depends on revenue and police authorities to evict land grabbers. Equipping the Wakf Board with judicial powers has been a long-pending demand but the previous governments simply brushed it under the carpet.
The TRS government, it is said, is serious about strengthening the Wakf Board with powers so as to enable it to protect its vast property worth crores of rupees. “We are confident that a positive decision would be taken shortly,” said a senior official in Minorities Welfare Department.
There are 33,929 Wakf institutions besides 77,538 acres of landed property in Telangana, against 4,600 institutions and 67,973 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh.
Of this, nearly 75 per cent of properties are under encroachment. The staff crunch has really incapacitated the Wakf Board so much that it is unable to protect its costly properties.
Bestowing judicial powers, it is said, would enable the board to go after land grabbers in a big way. (Maxim News)
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