Several financially sound Waqf institutions in the state are not regularly sending the 7 per cent proceeds to the Board.

The Karnataka Board of Waqfs will construct a Waqf Bhavan in the city for the purpose of holding conventions and to act as a hostel for visiting Muslim delegations, scholars and muthawallis from other places. This was announced by Mr. Merajuddin N. Patel, Minister for Animal Husbandry and Waqf at the first ever workshop held here for muthawallis of the City’s 500 and odd mosques on August 21.

Patel said the Board will introduce marriage certificates with photos of the couple pasted on it in order to minimise prospects of unscrupulous and vagrant males from other places entering into matrimony only for the fun sake. He said this in response to complaints being received about such marriages in various towns of Karnataka and slums of Bangalore.

Patel said the Board plans to appoint a Qazi in each district for documenting marriages as was the convention in Old Nizam State where all marriages were mandatorily registered with Daftar-e-Nizamath-e-Nikah (Marriage Registration Bureau). Patel said several financially sound Waqf institutions in the state were not regularly sending the 7 per cent proceeds to the Board. Consequently, Rs. 72 lakh were outstanding dues towards these institutions. He said the waqf properties in the State were worth Rs. 35 to 40 crore and should ideally fetch Rs. 1200 crore to the Waqf Board through mandatory contribution. But the Board now receives only around Rs. 3.38 crore. He said 90 per cent of the illegal occupation or encroachment on waqf properties was by Muslims alone. He pointed out that 172 major waqf properties were facing litigation. He held several staff members of the Board also responsible for this. He said the lone Khaleeli Estate in Bangalore (on which stands the five star Windsor Manor Hotel of Welcom Group) should yield Rs. 35 lakh in rents a month. But due to corruption, negligence and callousness of previous officials and people incharge of the Waqf Board, the property was leased out to the Welcom Group for a paltry sum of Rs. 6600 a month. He said the Court has now fixed up a rent of Rs. Six lakh a month till the litigation was over and the Board was negotiating for a rent of Rs. 35 lakh.

Maulana Riazur Rahman Rashadi, peshimam of the City Jama Masjid of Bangalore laid stress on the mosque being the centre of social organisation for Muslims. He said the mosques could run school, Quran memorisation and adult education centers and sharii panchayats.

Mr. U. Nisar Ahmed, Deputy Inspector General of Police, informed the gathering of muthawallis that literacy level of Muslims was just around 10 per cent if schooling upto SSLC was taken as the yardstick. He warned that the illiterate population was likely to swell as they tend to produce more kids and literate population will consequently shrink as they adopt small family norms.

Syed Tehsin Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of the Waqf Board said the Board has undertaken the task of second survey of Waqf properties in Karnataka after 40 years. He said the tendency not to register waqf properties for fear of parting with 7 per cent proceeds to the Board, was not healthy. He said gazette notification of waqf properties (which is possible following Survey alone) and legal services of the Board, provided legal defences against illegal occupation and encroachment.

Patel said the Board plans to appoint a Qazi in each district for documenting marriages as was the convention in Old Nizam State where all marriages were mandatorily registered with Daftar-e-Nizamath-e-Nikah (Marriage Registration Bureau).

Journalist M. A. Siraj suggested that Friday sermons at mosques were largely irrelevant and were high on decibles. He said level of information on current affairs of the peshimams was pretty low due to which they often present misinformation. He suggested workshops on current affairs, law, parliamentary affairs, sociology, economics etc, for such imams. He said the mosques should be connected with telephones and e-mails in order that networking could be possible and exchange of information about moon sighting, credentials of people, law and order situation could be exchanged on it. Mr. Siraj opined that misuse of loudspeakers, Ramadan eve cacophony, traffic hold-ups on Fridays and during funerals should be avoided, lest the peace of the localities not be disturbed. He said most objections to construction of new mosques was on these lines.

Prof. Salam Musheer of Millath Management Society introduced the Millath Resident Register among the muthawallis for registration of Muslims of the locality. He said such registers would reflect the age of the population, family size, marital and employment status, health and handicapped situation. He said the Society was providing these registers in mosques in and around Bangalore.

Syed Ejaz Ahmed, personal secretary to the Minister said the mosque committees had turned into hot-bed of politics and people were at each others’ throats to grab positions. He said if only people understood the sense of responsibility such a position entails, they would avoid pining for the posts.

Nearly 300 representatives of the mosques participated in the programme. Mr. Azam Shahid coordinated the workshop. Administrator of the Board, Syed Zameer Pasha, thanked the participants.

Update