Over two decades after it was initiated, the second waqf survey, which sought to identify, enumerate and record new Muslim endowed properties since 2001, now seems to be stuck between the Telangana State Waqf Board (TSWB) and the government.
File forwarded
Officials in the know maintained the second survey, though said to be complete, is waiting for final clearance from the Minorities Welfare Department (MWD). The officials said that the survey has identified, in addition to the around 33,000 existing institutions, another 13,600 waqf institutions. A file containing the information was sent to the MWD which, per procedure, forwarded it to the TSWB calling for objections and clarifications.
“There were some instances in which justification of the property as waqf was not provided. As justification we needed documents such as muntakhab or a waqfnamah which establish the property as a Muslim endowment. These were the objections which were raised in 2016. The file is still with the TSWB,” a source who did not wish to be identified said.
The second waqf survey, according to officials, found a large number of institutions with smaller properties. These include mosques and chillas.
“For example, we found masjids with around 100 square yard to 250 square yard land parcels which is relatively smaller,” an official said.
Gazette notification
However, a top official of the TSWB requesting anonymity said that the process of finalisation of the second waqf survey could take long. “Apart from the clarification, we have to reverify the content of the file and then take a decision. The file will then be sent to the government which then call for objections and then issue a gazette notification,” the official said.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, TSWB chief executive officer Shahnawaz Qasim told The Hindu on Tuesday that as many as one lakh files pertaining to waqf properties have been digitised since the sealing of the records section last year. However, according to Mr Qasim’s estimates another 70% are yet to be digitised.
“A lot of files are in Arabic and Persian. Apart from digitisation, indexing and categorising are taking time,” he said.