Says Kolkata governor house, DDA are paying a paltry sum to wakf board as rent
Mumbai: Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi while taking part in a debate on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill 2010 in the Lok Sabha on Thursday lambasted the government for not including the needed amendment and reiterated that the bill still had several lacunae which should be immediately set right.
In a high-pitch speech in the Lok Sabha, Owaisi, who is also a barrister, said that because of lacunae in the Wakf Act, and since the Wakf boards do not have enough power, the wakf lands are being encroached, given on through-away prices and people like Mukesh Ambani are occupying them.
"Mr Mukesh Ambani being the richest man in India had to occupy the land of a 'yateem khana'. Shame on his part that he had to occupy the land of orphans! Why because you did not have a duly constituted board there. The CEO gave the green signal. That is why you must have a duly constituted board. Not having that you can not stop future illegal and unauthorised occupation of waqf land", he said.
Demanding that the power as given to Hindu endowment board should also be given to Wakf board, Owaisi said, "In states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the Hindu endowment board have complete eviction power against encroacher. But the Wakf bill does not give such power to Waqf bill."
He demanded to add a provision if a magistrate does not take action against encroachers, disciplinary actions should be taken against him.
He contended that while the Land Acquisition Bill (LAB) sought to pay twice the value of land in urban areas and four times the value of land in rural areas to owners from whom land was being acquired, the Wakf bill proposed to compensate custodians of land only at prevailing market value. He said this aspect in the bill should be amended.
He noted that the bill was also silent on the issue of bringing encroachers of wakf land to book apart from not providing any mechanism to revise rentals of wakf properties.
"The governor's residence in Kolkata is on wakf land and the government is paying a paltry sum of Rs 159 per month to the Wakf Board as rent", he said.
He also said that there were 123 wakf properties with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and at many places the DDA was paying only Re 1 per acre as rent, he said, asking the minister if he could assure that after passing the bill these rents will be revised.
Lashing out at the TDP and Congress, Owaisi said that 1,700 acres of wakf land were handed over to multinational corporations by the two regimes. "When Chandrababu Naido was the Chief Minister, he gave wakf land to Microsoft. He gave wakf land to Indian School of Business and to Infosys. When the Congress came to power, it also started doing the same", he alleged.
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