LUCKNOW: Amid the ongoing surveys of unrecognised madrasas across Uttar Pradesh, the state government has issued directives to district magistrates and commissioners to re-examine the documents of all the properties registered under Waqf since April 7, 1989, and to record the status of such lands. According to the order, issued by the state government on September 19, Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards would be investigated in all the districts across the state.
The state government, which overturned a government order of 1989 under which uncultivable land was registered as Waqf property, has issued directives to the district administrations to conduct the survey and submit the relevant report within a month.
According to sources, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered the officers to scrutinise and demarcate the Waqf properties in the revenue records. The directives came in response to a letter written by the state minority affairs ministry that said that several properties have been illegally occupied by Waqf boards. Sources say that the survey aims to stop illegal possession and sale of Waqf properties.
A letter sent to commissioners and district magistrates by Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui, deputy secretary, UP government, states that several Waqf authorities had neglected the regulations regarding property registration as per the Waqf Act-1995 and the UP Muslim Waqf Act of 1960. In 1989, an order was also issued to properly register such properties in revenue records.
The state government said that cemetery, mosque and idgah land should be demarcated because, on the basis of the 1989 ordinance, many such lands registered as Usar, Banjar and Bhita were declared as Waqf properties. Also, gram sabha and municipal councils had land that could be used for the general public but were occupied by Waqf boards, it said. However, change in management and nature of these areas is prohibited under the 1989 order.
Launching an attack on the government over the issue, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “We are against the survey of Waqf properties. This government has to entangle people only in Hindu-Muslim issues.” Reacting to Akhilesh’s criticism, UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya called it “appeasement politics”. He said, “Akhilesh Yadav only has the support of the mafia, miscreants and rioters. Muslim community did not get the Waqf properties. They only went to the mafia,” Maurya said.