‘Land sharks have grabbed property’

INDORE: Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board Chairman Gufran-E-Azam has said that 99 per cent encroachers are Muslims. Azam said the one of the main reasons for rise in encroachments is because the Waqf property is entered in revenue department record as government property, whereas, the entry should be in the form of Waqf property.
“This explains the reason that Waqf has to lose many properties in important locations,” he lamented.Explaining the ongoing verification process, he said the Waqf was interested in knowing real status of properties.“Our teams are looking into the current status of the properties,” he said, adding that the process was on for identifying encroachers and how much land had been encroached upon. “After this, we will serve notice under section 54 of the Waqf Act to get it free,” he said.
He admitted that the land sharks grabbed a major portion of land. Citing an example of Indore, he said on AB Road behind Shreemaya celebrity about 1.62 lakh square feet land was grabbed to develop a colony. However, the Waqf moved the court against the alleged encroachers and won the case after the canceling registration of plots. Now, the Waqf Board has decided to develop its encroachment-free properties as commercial complex and residential colonies.