A political slugfest appears to be on the cards as the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State has tabled an eight-and-half-year-old report on the “misuse and encroachment” of Wakf properties before the State legislature.
The report. readied on March 23, 2012, by the then chairman of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission Anwar Manippady has kicked up political dust afresh as it names several prominent politicians, particularly those in the Congress, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Dharam Singh, Rehman Khan, Jaffer Sharief, MLAs Khaneer Fathima Qamur-ul-Islam, N.A. Haris, his wife Tahera Haris and mother Suraiah Mohammed, as those among the ones responsible for “misuse and encroachment” of Wakf properties.
Others who have been named in the report include MLA Roshan Baig, former Union Minister C. Ibrahim, former Ministers Qamur-ul-Islam and Hindasgeri, former MP Narasing Rao Suryavamshi and former MLAs Iqbal Ansari and Syed Yasin.
The tabling coincides with the Opposition mounting its attack on the government over several issues including the charges of corruption and improper handling of the COVID-19 situation.
The report, which has listed encroachment as well as misuse of properties in each of the districts, says that 1,803 acres of the total 2,586 acres in Bidar alone have been encroached.
The report has described the “massive” encroachment and misappropriation as “only the tip of the iceberg.” Alleging that “Wakf mafia” has joined hands with Wakf Board in the scam, it has observed that the volume of the scam is not smaller than 2-G scam that rocked the country earlier.
It has recommended to the government to take the Wakf Board into its control and begin the task of cleansing it. It has recommended that an inquiry should be conducted through the Lokayukta besides initiating legal process by suspending the Wakf Committee for a year.
It has also recommended constitution of a task force to recover the Wakf properties in accordance with the Supreme Court’s verdict with respect to a civil appeal in 1998; and constitution of a high-level committee to run the Karnataka State Wakf Board in a transparent manner and set an agenda in this regard.
