Waqf issue gains momentum with BJP planning a visit

Vijayapura district officials have denied that any notices were issued in Honavad village about claims of ownership by the Waqf board

The issue raised by some BJP leaders that the Waqf board had claimed farm lands in Vijayapura district has gained some momentum with the party saying it will send a fact finding committee and some farmers groups saying they will launch an agitation. 

A delegation of BJP leaders led by MP Govind Karjol will visit Honavad village on Tuesday (October 29, 2024). “Mr Karjol and others will meet the farmers and assure them to join their agitation. If necessary, they will take up legal fight on their behalf,’‘ said a release by the BJP district unit.

Meanwhile, some farmers leaders have warned of a protest on Tuesday night. Aravind Kulkarni of Karnataka rajya raitha sanga and Sangamesh Sagar, Hasiru Sene leader, said that they would storm the deputy commissioner’s office and spend the night there.

Vijayapura district officials oppose BJP’s claims

This is despite the fact that Vijayapura district officials have denied that any notices were issued in Honavad village about claims of ownership by the Waqf board. Tukaram Dhadake, gram panchayat president in Honavad confirmed to The Hindu that no resident of the village had received any notice from the revenue authorities or the waqf board.

M B Patil, district in charge minister, has clarified that no notices were issued in Honavad village and no changes of ownership were effected. He said that in Honavad village Waqf Board has only around 10 acres and 29 guntas of land. “No farmer has got any notice, nor has the ownership of any farmer been changed. Some people are creating confusing using copies of the 1974 gazette. They are trying to conceal the 1977 gazette notifications and government orders that has documents that show that the Waqf Board has rectified the 1974 records. No mutations have been conducted, no Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops have been revised,” Mr. Patil told reporters in Vijayapura on Sunday (October 27, 2024).

‘BJP creating confusion’

To an allegation by Tejaswi Surya, MP and BJP leader, that revenue officials had mutated records to grant ownership of nine acres of land to the Waqf board in Honavad village, Mr Patil said it was done on 24-02- 2022, when the BJP was in power in the state. The nine acres of kabarastan or graveyard was mutated in 2022. But the BJP leaders are trying to deliberately hide this fact,’‘ said Mr Patil. “The BJP rule was full of divisive and destructive initiatives like Hijab and Halal, while our efforts are constructive and inclusive like the guarantees and welfare schemes,’‘ he said.

Mr Patil however, said that a total of 124 notices pertaining to lands owned by around 430 farmers had been issued elsewhere in the district, mostly in the last month. “They will be resolved in appropriate fora,” he said. He said that the district level task force formed by the Deputy Commissioner would address all such issues.

Officers say that these were given after oral instructions from the minister. Speaking at a Waqf adalat, he said that the total Waqf properties in the district were about 14,000 acres. “However, most of them have been either alienated, or sold or are victims of adverse possession. It is sad that Waqf board has failed to protect them all these years. The board should now start recovering them,’‘ he said. He asked the waqf board officers and Tahashildars to issue notices to those holding adverse possession.

Officers argue that a notice from the revenue department and a reply to it, would in fact strengthen the claims of the farmers, and not the waqf board. “For example, we were able to initiate measures to rectify the errors in a RTC in Sindagi taluk, when the Guru Siddalingaswami Viraktmath replied to a notice. It had faced claims by the board over its one acres 36 guntas of land. But that was because the survey number was wrongly entered. The waqf survey number was 1029 while the Math survey number was 1020. Similarly, private ownership of around 13 acres was confirmed after a notice was responded to in Yargal village’‘, another officer informed.

However, there were some errors too. “The Tahashildar office at Indi issued orders to include claims by the waqf board in 41 properties of around 50 acres, without issuing claim notices. The claims were entered in column number 11 of the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Cultivation, though the names of the original owner remains in column number 9. But this anomaly is being rectified by the district administration. An officer of the sub divisional magistrate has taken up the case suo motu and will take the appropriate legal remedial action,’‘ said a senior officer.

Published - October 28, 2024 06:40 pm IST