HYDERABAD: After pulling up the Telangana State Waqf Board (TSWB) for failing to protect Daira Mir-e-Momin among other Waqf properties and ordering it to submit a report regarding the matter, the Waqf Board recently completed surveying the graveyard and identified the encroachments.
Shahnawaz Qasim, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Waqf Board, said, “We have completed the survey of the graveyard along with officials of revenue department. We will now formulate a report and submit it to the High Court for further instructions.” Sources also claimed that they have served notices to the encroachments in the area.
Last month, based on a PIL by a representation of ‘A Citizen of Hyderabad Society’, the HC pulled up the Waqf Board. The situation in the centuries-old graveyard is so dire that that the distance between a few shanties and tombstones are barely 5 feet. With encroachments come corresponding problems. An unidentified, dilapidated tomb in the outer reaches of the cemetery has been turned into a dumpyard, filled with rotting food, plastics and dead rats.
The necropolis came under the direct control of Wakf Board in 2016. However, in the last two years, at least two houses have been built inside the graveyard, alleged heritage activists, indicating that the Board’s powers have been non-functional. Superintendent of the graveyard Momin Mazhar Ali Khan said, “The real problem is that the locals have the support of politicians.” Meanwhile on Saturday, lauding the Waqf Board for finally taking a step, activists urged the Board to erect a boundary wall along its original perimeter.