Hyderabad: The state government today said that it was taking steps for the protection of wakf properties across Telangana state. State minorities welfare minister Koppula Eshwar told the house that their government had conducted survey of all the Waqf properties a couple of times after coming into power. He also said that the survey was still underway and added that they were retagging all the properties. He made these while replying to a question raised by AIMIM floor leader in the house Akbaruddin Owaisi on the protection of the waqf properties.
Speaking on the occasion Minister Eshwar while terming the state government as a secular government has said that it would protect the properties all sections of the society. He told house that the first survey of the properties was conducted in the year 1962 as per the Waqf Act 1954 and added that the survey had identified 77,539 acres of land in 3929 places of the state. He said that they had also issued a gazette notification on the issue by including all the Waqf properties between the year 1982 and 2002. He said that the then state government had once again asked the survey commission of the Waqf in the year 2001 and added that the commission had submitted its report in the year 2016. He said that the survey had identified the 3072 acres of the Waqf properties in 13,610 areas of the state. He said that the state government had not issued the gazette notification as their were several objections about the survey report.
He said that they had once again asked the survey commission to hold the survey to address the objections. Intervening at this juncture, the MIM flood leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has demanded the minister to spell out an exact deadline to complete the entire process. He also urged the minister to convene a Meeting on the issue to discuss the matter in a threadbare manner. Reminding the house, the promises made by the chief minister of the state KCR that they would confer judicial powers on the Waqf board, he also urged the state government to confer them as soon possible while making it clear that it would not be possible for the Waqf board to protect the remaining properties from encroachments. The minister agreed to the request of Owaisi to hold the meeting on the issue.