Government Encroaches 5000 Acres Wakf Land
in Hyderabad

Hyderabad : Several multi-national companies, leading educational institutions and major infrastructure projects have come up on 5000 acres of wakf land worth thousands of crores of rupees in and around Hyderabad .

This was revealed during a visit of Andhra Pradesh state assembly committee on minority welfare to some of the areas on the outskirts of the city.

The committee found that the previous Telugu Desam government had allotted the prime wakf land to Indian School of Business, hardware park, international airport, Fab City , Microsoft, Moulana Azad National Urdu University and other institutions.

It was also revealed that 420 acres of land of Muslim Maternity Hospital, 2190 acres of dargah Hazrat Baba Sharfuddin, 584 acres of dargah Hazrat Shah Raju Qattal and 490 acres of Ashur Khana Ali Saad were encroached by the government and private parties.

It was also found that the government encroached 490 acres of land belonging to Jamia Nizamia, 125-year-old Islamic institution. Hyderabad Urban Development Authority has taken over the land, which was donated by Nizam of the erstwhile Hyderabad State .

The committee comprising Muslim MLAs belonging to various parties also surveyed 1654 acres of land donated by Nizam to Dargah Hazrat Hussain Shah Vali in neighboring Ranga Reddy district.

The government has allotted 660 acres of this land to Andhra Pradesh industrial infrastructure corporation and 250 acres to Indian School of Business. A part of the wakf land is also being shown as a temple land.

The land belonging to Muslim Maternity Hospital in Maheshwaram village has been encroached by the government and allotted to people belonging to scheduled castes. When the committee members reached these places to inspect the land, the encroachers pelted stones at them.

The visit by the committee came after the prime land was totally encroached and at a time when the real estate prices around the city are skyrocketing. The land prices range from Rs.5 crore to Rs.15 crore per acre.

There is little possibility of recovering the encroached land as the concrete structures have come up on the land. The wakf board has no documentary evidence to prove that the entire land belonged to it. With the government itself being the encroacher, the revenue department and district administration of Ranga Reddy is not ready to help wakf board in recovering the land. The revenue officials and district administration have also decided not to extend any cooperation making the task of the house committee more difficult.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi demanded that the land allotted to multinational companies be made tenants of wakf board and Muslims be given 10 per cent seats in educational institutions and 10 per cent jobs in these companies.

“The government should prove its sincerity towards protection of the wakf land and take proper steps,” demanded Owaisi.