The city owes much of its glitter to wakf land. Be it the modern-day buildings in Cyberabad or the world class international airport at Shamshabad, they are all sitting pretty allegedly on age-old wakf properties as per records. The high court ruling on Manikonda land in favour of Wakf Board is only a small victory given the collective acreage the board has lost to Hyderabad’s growth story, most of which cannot be undone.
The total extent of wakf land in Greater Hyderabad is estimated at 7,000 acres and 80 per cent of it has been lost to what the government showcases as development. Most of the wakf land the city has eaten into is on its outskirts that has witnessed major expansion over the last few years.
For starters, the 1100 acres of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad allegedly belongs to Baba Sharfuddin Pahadi dargah, popularly known as Pahadi Sharif . In Miyapur, several wakf properties adding up to over 30 acres have been lost to encroachments in the last few years with the mushrooming of new residential and commercial complexes. In Kondapur area, around 90 acres of wakf land have been lost to similar encroachments. In the fast developing area of Attapur, 69 acres of wakf land have been lost and 488 acres of Mir Mahmood Pahadi dargah lost in the same area. As per records, 62 acres of the Nehru Zoological Park is on wakf land. There are many other instances of smaller wakf properties in Attapur that add up to over 100 acres that have been lost to the rapid growth the area has seen.
In fact, the first house committee that was set up in the mid-90’s to study the large scale loss of wakf land had then stated in its report (dated January 10, 1997) that a major chunk of wakf land was concentrated in Rangareddy district, most of which are now part of Greater Hyderabad. As per the report, there were 3,820 properties in RR district adding up to 14,785 acres, 17 guntas land. In Hyderabad, the committee had found 3,208 properties measuring up to 1,469 acres land. This included land in Secunderabad cantonment. “That time, areas such as Attapur and parts of Cyberabad were in RR district and that explains the poor wakf land acreage in the core Hyderabad city area,” says a senior official.
Sources said that the entire Punjagutta area, in the heart of the city, was once the jagir allotted to the Punjagutta Masjid in the Punjagutta market and that many buildings here housing prominent commercial establishments were built on wakf land.
While legal battles are being waged for larger wakf land parcels, encroachments of smaller portions are being divided among land sharks like pieces of a pie. Sources say that the Malan Shah Baba dargah in Rajendranagar has lost more than 14 acres to land grabbers; Maqbara-e-Walajah in Asif Nagar was forcibly relieved of more than 15 acres of its jagir; 30 acres of the Dervesh Mohiuddin Quadri dargah were snatched. The list is endless.
Sources say that there are as many as 1015 wakf land cases pending in courts out of which 90 are in the SC, 275 in the HC and 230 in civil courts. The Wakf Board has won only eight of the 296 cases.
Religious institutions such as dargahs, mosques and madrassas were granted jagirs by rulers so that the funds derived from them could go towards maintenance of these properties and for philanthropic purposes. Wakf and Hindu endowments lands were insulated from the Jagir Abolition Act.
Courtesy: TOI