Govt to freeze Wakf property transactions across state

The government is likely to freeze buying or selling of Wakf properties across the state even as authorities are cracking down on encroachment of these religious assets worth crores of rupees.

So far, authorities have identified 1,226 cases of encroachments of Wakf properties, more than 300 of which are in Bengaluru. There are a total of 41,377 Wakf properties
in the state.

Wakf properties include mosques, dargahs, idgahs (open-air enclosures for prayers), burial grounds, orphanages and others meant for religious service. The Karnataka State Board of Wakfs has written to the Revenue department seeking a ‘lock’ on all Wakf properties in the Bhoomi land records database to prevent any transactions connected with them. “The Revenue department has agreed in-principle,” Wakf board administrator Mohammed Mohsin, who also serves as minority welfare secretary, said.

“Going forward, our properties will be clearly identified as Wakf in land records such as the record of rights, tenancy and crops (RTC).”

Task forces have been formed in every district to clear encroachment of Wakf properties. The government has also taken up surveying of Wakf properties. “A survey is supposed to be done every ten years. The first survey was done in 1997 after that it wasn’t done. In the second round going on now, we have surveyed 12,389 out of 12,752 properties,” Mohsin said.

The 1,226 cases of encroachment identified, cover as much as 1,510.67 acres of Wakf properties all over Karnataka, according to data. So far, authorities have cleared encroachments in 694 cases, with the rest either stuck in courts or pending action.

‘Haj Bhavan encroached’

The Rs 87-crore three-storey Haj Bhavan in Bengaluru’s Hegde Nagar, hailed as the first-of-its-kind in India when it was inaugurated in 2016, was encroached. “The three-acre property was a Wakf property all along, but it was registered under someone else’s name. We found out in the nick of time and payment was stopped. Otherwise, we would have ended up paying for our own property,” Mohsin said, adding that a criminal case was filed last year. “Certainly the encroachers are influential persons and in most cases, the encroachment does not come into the public domain.”