Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Thursday said the government would consider forming a task force to protect the wakf properties in the State.

JD(S) MLC Abdul Azeem had said in the Council that a task force on the lines of Railway Protection Force should be established to protect wakf’s properties. Gowda, who welcomed the suggestion, promised to consider it.

The chief minister said though he had the Minorities Commission report on encroachment, he was yet to study it.

Earlier, Allam Prabhu Patil (Congress) objected to the report for dragging names of senior Congress leaders in the scam. However, he sought to know the action taken by the government against the Wakf property encroachers in Gulbarga. Gowda said that cases had been registered against the  culprits. 

Punish guilty: HDK 

JD(S) State president H D Kumaraswamy said that the government should take the Commission’s report seriously and bring all the offenders to book.

Addressing the mediapersons, he said Gowda should not yield to any pressure and should make the report public.

However, he said that the report should not be used for political mileage. The then Legislature Committee headed by A T Ramaswamy, too had submitted a similar report on the encroachment of government land in Bangalore Urban district. But the report is gathering dust as the BJP government has dumped it. The report on the alleged encroachment of Wakf properties should not be treated similarly, he said.

Congress MLA N A Haris took exception to the contents of the report stating that neither he nor his family members had acquired any wakf property in any manner.

He said the report was politically motivated and he was contemplating to file a defamation suit against the Commission Chairman Anwar Manippady.