Wakf Land Encroached In Guntur

Thousands of Muslims on Saturday staged a protest against the illegal encroachment of a 20-acre plot of land in Guntur belonging to the Wakf Board. Protesting outside the District Collector's office, the activists urged him to take action against the encroachers.

The plot, measuring 19.6 acres, falls under the survey numbers 508 and 509, and its present market value is estimated to be around Rs. 400 crores.

The protestors, led by Mutawalli JNM Karim Ali, pointed out to the District Collector that according to the 1955 Imams Survey Commission, the said plot had been marked as Wakf land in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette.

"The property clearly belongs to the Wakf board," the Mutawalli said.

The protestors also submitted a memorandum to the District Collector, and requested him to to take action against the encroachers.

The Mutawalli pointed out that a writ was filed in 1983 by the then Mutawalli, Meer Mohammed Ali, to prevent illegal acquisition of the Wakf property.

In 1984, while the writ petition was still pending, the then Collector had withdrawn the property on someone else's name.

Taking advantage of the withdrawal notification, the encroachers sold the property to film producer L Prasad, who, in turn, sold the said land to a certain V V P Narayana.

Narayana then divided the land and sold it to 131 persons at varying rates. All the cited transactions were done without genuine documents.

Besides the 19.60-acre plot, another 52 acres of Wakf property in the survey numbers 498 to 506 have also been encroached, the Mutawalli stated.

He said that the encroachers were having a field day thanks to the negligence of the Guntur Municipal Authorities.

Courtesy: INN