By IANS,
Hyderabad : As the Andhra Pradesh government and state Wakf Board fight over the ownership of 50 acre prime land near the international airport, the Nizam’s grandson Nawab Najaf Ali Khan has claimed that the government never purchased the land.
Najaf Ali Khan, grandson of the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, has come out with the details of the property located in Mamidipally village in Saroornagar ‘mandal’ to dispute the government claim that it purchased the land from the Nizam in 1956.
According to him, the 50 acres were part of the land donated by seventh Nizam, the last ruler of erstwhile Hyderabad state, to the Dargah Hazrat Baba Sharfuddin in Pahadisharif.
In a statement, Najaf Ali Khan said the Nizam donated several properties for Wakf and one such property was 2,132 acres 38 guntas for the Dargah.
“From the time of Ummor-e-Mazhabi department (religious department) of Nizam era till today, the said property is listed as Wakf property,” he said.
He said all records show that the property existed in the name of the seventh Nizam. “The gazette published by the government on Feb 9, 1989 shows the 2,132 acres and 38 guntas as Wakf,” he said.
He cited a Supreme Court judgment that once a property is declared Wakf, it can’t be transferred or extinguished by the maker of the will. “How can the government claim that it purchased the land,” he asked.
A row erupted recently over the land worth crores of rupees when the revenue department served a notice on the Wakf Board asking why the 50 acre land allotted to it by government in 2009 should not be taken back since the Board had not put it to use.
The Wakf Board sent a strong reply to the concerned officer, asking him to withdraw the show cause notice. The Board said the revenue department had no jurisdiction over the property.
Najaf Ali Khan blamed the negligence by Nizam Awqaf Committee for the controversy. He said the committee, which was formed to look after the Wakf properties donated by Nizam, should take immediate steps to acquire the land and use it to improve the economic conditions of the community.