Highlighting the role of Urdu media for the cause of saving Wakf properties, India’s leading newspaper The Times of India was published this article on Feb 1, 2008.
Urdu dailies take up wakf cause
Fearing further indiscriminate sale of wakf properties, leading Urdu dailies in the city have stepped in to safeguard them. Three Urdu newspapers have simultaneously launched campaigns mobilising readers to demand the state government to remove all “illegal encroachments” on wakf land.
The three dailies, Munsif , Siasat and Rahnuma-e-Deccan , are carrying advertisements, if not reports or statements on the subject everyday. The most striking feature of the campaign has been the banner advertisement that appears below the newspaper mastheads.
An advertisement published on Tuesday stated, “The responsibility to protect wakf properties lies with the government, whether it is the Congress or Telugu Desam; whether the chief minister is Rajasekhara Reddy or Chandrababu Naidu; whether it is 100 or 700 acres. Wakf properties are Allah’s ‘amanat’ (Allah’s property with the community for safe keep). They have to be handed over to Muslims. Come, we all Muslims should unite to conduct prayers and demand the government to remove all illegal encroachments”.
The campaign began about two weeks ago. Worried about the government claim over wakf land, their indiscriminate sale and encroachment, and attempts to force the Wakf Board to toe the administration line, they decided to take the issue to the readers and not just sensitise them but also mobilise them into action.
The advertisements have claimed that wakf properties worth crores of rupees are under illegal occupation on the stretch between Hi-Tec City and Shamshabad airport alone. If the government wishes, these lands could be freed from the encroachers.
And the campaign has already generated a response. First to react were predictably politicians. Some Congress leaders bought half page space in newspapers to allege that the campaign by the editors is motivated and aimed at damaging the Congress party.
They also claimed that the Congress government had sold only 100 acres of land of Manikonda jagir in an open auction to Lanco Hills but the Telugu Desam government had sold 800 acres during its rule at throwaway price. A group of 46 Muslim lawyers jumped into the fray and trashed the claims of the Congress leaders. They challenged the Congress leaders to hold a debate on the subject.
The newspaper campaign has at least ensured an involved discussion on the subject by stirring the community into realising the importance of salvaging wakf properties. The Congress, on the other hand, also seems to be worried about the repercussions of the campaign just before the upcoming election. Sources said that the Congress is likely to ask a group of senior leaders to reassure Muslims that the party and the government would undertake measures to protect wakf properties.
The concern of the newspaper editors is well founded. An estimated 70,000 properties spread over 1.65 lakh acres of land across the state come under the Wakf Board.
Given the prevailing market value of these plots, many of them measuring in hundreds of acres, the sale of lease of such properties would be in crores of rupees or more if they are in prime locations. Of the total wakf institutions, 75 per cent properties have been lost to encroachments and many of them are not registered with the board.
Last year, the Wakf Board had woken up to its properties and started waging a battle to reclaim properties in Hyderabad and across the state. The board claimed that these properties had been given away to a variety of institutions over the years by successive state governments.
The claim was further strengthened when the minorities welfare department initiated a move to get the Wakf Board compensation for institutions standing on wakf land. The department contended that if wakf land has been used for setting up these institutions and companies, the board will need to be compensated and any wakf land lying vacant will have to be returned to it. Officials had said that since some wakf land was also given by district collectors to Andhra Pradesh
Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), that in turn gave it to companies, the profit accrued in the transaction should go to the Wakf Board.
The last survey conducted by the board was about four decades ago and according to the findings at that time, there were about 35,000 wakf institutions.
Mir Ayoob Ali Khan, TNN Feb 1, 2008, 01.43am IST
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-02-01/hyderabad/27754658_1_wakf-properties-wakf-land-wakf-board