Unauthorised Occupation of Waqf Estates
By A Staff Writer
Bangalore: The Karnataka Waqf Board is setting up a task force to evict encroachments on waqf properties and has ordered a fresh survey of waqf properties in the State. Such task forces have already been set up in Bidar, Davangere, Chikamagalur, Chikballapur, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagram districts. Board Chairman Abdul Riyaz Khan told newsmen recently that a second survey of waqf assets in the state will be conducted and the exercise will be repeated every 10 years in accordance with the Central Waqf Amended Act 2013 which has come into force from November 1, 2013.
Riyaz Khan informed that under the amended Act, the waqf properties can be leased only for 30 years and any properties that have exhausted their lease tenure can be declared unauthorized occupation and the occupants can thus be evicted and the courts will not be eligible to intervene in the matter.
Khan has urged all mutawallis of the waqf estates to forward to the Board a list of unauthorized occupation in the State. He said the amended Act has made mutawallis responsible for bringing the unauthorized occupation to the notice of the Waqf authorities and failure to do so may attract action against them.
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