By Faraz Ahmad, IANS
New Delhi : Not many know it, but huge swathes of Wakf land – property of Muslim trust – have come to be occupied illegally by prominent government and private establishments in Delhi.
Delhi Wakf Board officials say that a leading public school and a five-star hotel in the heart of the city are among as many as 362 prime properties that have come up illegally on the board's land. Government bodies are major violators.
The issue of squatting on Wakf land in the country has come into sharp focus after a notice last week to Mukesh Ambani from the Maharashtra Wakf Board, restraining him from building on its land his dream mansion at Altamount Road in Mumbai.
Wakf is the Urdu equivalent for the word trust. Over a period most properties owned by Muslims, either left unattended and unwilled or actually left in the custody of some person or body, becomes Wakf property.
Almost the entire area extending from Masjid Moth to Gulmohar Park was once Wakf property. A block of apartments near the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is built on such land.
"The Delhi Wakf Board has not sold a single property to anybody. But, yes, we have not been able to recover fully even a single property so far," conceded Intezar Jafri, the inspector of properties at the Delhi Wakf Board.
The entire Western Extension Area (WEA) in Karol Bagh, the Harijan Basti on Old Rohtak Road, the Takia Piao in Timarpur and prime land in Mehrauli were all once owned by Wakf and are now under the control of various quarters.
Most Wakf land is in fact under the occupation of government bodies, according to Jafri.
The Land and Development Office (L&DO) of the Delhi government occupies 108 Wakf properties and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) 138 properties. Another 53 are listed against the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and 20 against Indian Railways.
The property left unclaimed by Muslims who went to Pakistan after India's partition went to the Custodian of Properties. This body has long ceased to exist but the property under its control – which should have either gone to the Wakf or to another body specially created for this purpose – has not been accounted for, said Jafri.
The Wakf Board strangely mentions 15 properties still under its control.
The ministry of defence, Delhi Transport Corp (DTC), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC) and Delhi Police are all sitting illegally on Wakf property.
"The entire length of land from the Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine to Aliganj, near Jor Bagh opposite Safdarjung Airport, was a graveyard for Muslims – one of the biggest graveyards in northern India," says Akhlaqur Rehman, the oldest employee of the Delhi Wakf Board.
"This means that the CGO complex, all the Lodhi Colony private and government constructions, all of it was part of this graveyard."
Before partition there were three committees looking after all Wakf properties in Delhi. "These were the Anjumane Moidul Islam, Zeenatul Masajid committee and the Jama Masjid committee," said Rehman.
These committees were under the supervision of the deputy commissioner of Delhi. Therefore in the land records, the deputy commissioner of Delhi was mentioned as the owner of all these properties.
"Come 1947 and Muslims started fleeing with no one concerned over what belonged to whom," said Rehman, adding that the Wakf Board under the Wakf Act was formed later.
"The survey of 1908 and 1909 and a subsequent survey in 1919 whose copies are lying in Dehradun somewhere give a full picture of what all was entrusted by the Muslims and thus in turn belong to the Wakf," he claimed.
[Photo by Yaap Raaf]Â