Row erupts after old letter from Waqf Board staking claim on Varanasi college goes viral

Lucknow: A letter written by the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board to a 115-year-old college in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi, six years back staking its claim on a portion of the land on which the College was situated, triggered a huge row after some people posted the letter on social media. .

The letter by the Waqf Board, which went viral, came into limelight amid the ongoing tussle over the Waqf Amendment Bill and the extension given to the JPC set up to consider the same till February next year.

According to the reports, the letter, dated December 6, 2018, had said that the land on which Uday Pratap College, popularly known as UP College, was situated belonged to the Waqf and had been illegally occupied by the College.

The letter, written by the then Waqf Board assistant secretary Aale Ateeq, sought reply from the College management stating that that the property would be registered as a Waqf Board property if the notice was not replied to within 15 days.

It also said that the College land belonged to the then Nawab of Tonk who had donated it to the Waqf Board in 1857.

Sources said that the College management had then replied to the letter and rubbished the claim of the Waqf Board. The UP College management said that the Waqf Board did not send any letter after that.

A College official in Varanasi said two years back, a controversy had arisen after attempts to construct a ‘mazar’ (tomb) inside the College campus but the matter subsided after the intervention of the police.

Reports said that there was a small mosque inside the Campus where a small number of people offered prayers, especially on Fridays. But after the old letter went viral, a large number of people suddenly reached the mosque on Friday to offer prayers, taking the local administration by surprise.

Security personnel in strength had been deployed in the College as a preventive measure, sources said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had visited the College on Monday and declared that the College would be made a University in the near future.