The State Wakf Board has said that it would be compelled to take back the land provided for setting up the Tata COVID hospital, if the district administration fails to honour the agreement to offer alternative land at Chattanchal in Kasaragod.
The board served a notice on Kasaragod District Collector Bhandari Swagat Ranveer Chand based on a letter from the Jamuyyathul Ulama Malabar Islamic Complex, which flayed the alleged delay on the part of the government and the district administration in allotting the land at Chattanchal.
The Wakf land was taken over in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Then District Collector D. Sajith Babu had entered into an agreement with Syed Mohammed Jiffri Muthukoya Thangal, president of the Jamuyyathul Ulama Malabar Islamic Complex Association, following a meeting with the Waqf Board in March 2020.
Interestingly, the issue has come up at a time when the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is mounting pressure on the State government to refrain from its decision to hand over appointments in the Waqf Board to the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The Muslim Youth League (MYL) too has come out in the open against the government. It alleged that the government and the district administration had failed to abide by the agreement to provide land.
MYL district president Aziz Kalathoor said the government had acquired 4.125 acres of Wakf land for the COVID multi-speciality hospital using the CSR funds of Tata Group one-and-a-half years ago.
An agreement had been reached under the Kerala Land Assignment Rules 24, 1964 to release the land in survey number 267/2B, 1B, 266/1, 276/1A and 277 / 1A within a period of three months from the date of agreement made on March 20, 2020, he added.
The hospital is functional now. The said land was allotted when the people of Kasaragod were facing numerous difficulties following the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Wakf Board and the institutions concerned are bound to protect their land. The government cannot dishonour the agreement, said Zaheer Asif, general secretary, MYL.
He added that the issue would be taken up with the Wakf Tribunal, and that a protest would be launched if the government further delayed the allotment of land.
