All encroachments on Waqf Board land will be removed: Eknath Khadse

Revenue minister Eknath Khadse on Thursday assured the House that the government would remove all encroachments in the nearly 70,000 acres of Waqf Board land in the state in a phased manner. He said a special drive in this regard had begun last month.

Khadse was replying to a question by Malegaon Central MLA Asif Shaikh and Mankhurd Shivajinagar MLA Abu Azmi during the question hour.

Khadse informed the House that his department had received a few complaints about Waqf Board land being sold. He said the Muslim community had been provided one lakh acres of land (worth Rs 10,000 crore) through Waqf Board on lease for 99 to 30 years for various purposes including education. He said his department had started action against encroachments to protect the interests of the community.

Abu Azmi pointed out that in various cities many government offices were functioning in the premises of mosques. Imtiaz Jaleel of MIM said he would provide evidences about Waqf Board land being grabbed by private builders and corporates paying nominal charges. Jaleel pointed out that even big corporates like Ambanis had been given Waqf Board land, and demanded an inquiry into this.

Khadse said Waqf Boards had land in prime localities and Ambanis had been provided Waqf Board land meant for orphanage, and that Waqf Board had incurred losses in the process. He assured the House that even if it took time, government would take action. The revenue minister also told the House that the government was going to digitize all land records in order to ascertain the present state of affairs with respect to Waqf Board land. He said there was a case of Waqf Board land being used to set up a 5-star hotel by showing it as a hotel for catering course. The government would look into this, the minister said.