Land mafia sets its eyes on Wakf property

HYDERABAD: The land mafia is all setto encroach upon more than 100 acres in Attapur in Ranga Reddy districtbelonging to the A P State Wakf Board.Taking advantage of loopholes in aresolution passed by the Board on May 4 stating that encroachments on all Wakflands in Attapur would be regularised, the land sharks have started approachingthe Board seeking “regularisation� of lands which were never undertheir occupation. There is no mention of survey numbers, extent of land orthe rent or lease amounts to be fixed for regularisation of encroached lands inAttapur in the Board’s resolution. This being the case, it has helped theland mafia to gobble up land without much problem from anyquarter.According to sources, the VIPs, including a former MLA, are inillegal possession of several acres through “benami� accounts andhave been trying to show that they possess more land than what has beenmentioned in the records to “regularise� them all at once. Theresolution will be affective once it is adopted in the next meeting of the Boardon May 13.As per the official records, till 1997, of the 488 acresbelonging to Dargah Mir Mahmood Saheb Qibla in Rajendra Nagar mandal, 136 acreshave been encroached upon by 2,196 people. Another 50 acres is said to have beenencroached since then.However, the land mafia in connivance with some ofthe Wakf Board members is aiming to show that the entire 488 acres is underencroachment. The drive to acquire the undisputed land under“regularisation scheme� was actually started during March thisyear.The “regularisation scheme� was planned so clandestinelythat it even bypassed the attention of several Board members. Forinstance, the Board leased out three acres in Survey No. 331 of Attapur to HajiMiyan in the first week of March, which found only a single-line mention as itemnumber 74 in the action-taken report when the Board met on March 27.