In the absence of regular meetings in the Telangana State Wakf Board (TSWB), the demand has intensified for the same and even within the institution as the members of the newly formed body too are insisting for the speedy resolution of issues kept pending for a long time.
It is said that the board was formally met last time in the month of September to discuss the wakf issues. Though a meeting of the newly formed body was held recently, it was largely confined to introduction of members and conferment of powers to the newly elected chairman Masiullah Khan.
While the community activists are urging the newly formed body to hold the meetings regularly, the members too joined them demanding speedy clearance of the pending issues.
“Wakf Board is incurring heavy losses due to delay in completing legal proceedings of cases being pursued in courts. Several other issues to be discussed on priority note are also waiting for their disposal. The land grabbers, fake mutawallies and guttedars of shrines in the state are enjoying the situation taking advantage of the absence of regular meetings,” held Syed Ifekhar Shareef, a community activist.
As per the procedure, he said, the meetings should be called every month to discuss the issues. The new board was formed in the month of February this year but no formal meetings were called to discuss the issues concerning the board during the last four months except the one that was held on May 7 that saw only introduction of members and conferment of powers to new chairmen.
Reminding that the newly elected Chairman Masuiullah Khan, at the time taking the charge, was assured to bring transparency in the board’s functioning, he urged that the newly elected board should call the meeting regularly to take up legal matters and discuss the issues besides clearing the pending files in the larger interest of the Wakf Board.
While finding fault with keeping the Chief Executive Officer (CEO’s) posts vacant for several years, he said, this too became a trend in minority institutions.
“The post of CEO is still vacated in the wakf board since 2018 which was additionally conferred to the Director Minority Welfare Shahnawaz Khasim. Similar is the situation of Telangana State Haj Committee where the post of CEO was additionally conferred to the Secretary Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions (TMREIS) for the heck of it,” argued Iftekhar.
Lending weight to the argument, Moulana Abul Fateh Bandagi Badshah Quadri, a newly elected member of the Board, too demanded regular holding of meetings to resolve the pending issues.
“No meeting was called for a long time due to elections that resulted in piling up of issues and pending files. A meeting was convened on May 31 for the first time this year almost three month after the elections to constitute a new body on February 28. Though there are several issues that were pending for a long time and need to be discussed at the earliest, this meeting was held only to confer powers to the newly elected Chairmen and the sub-committees,” informed Bandagi Badshah.
“It is against this background, I wrote to CEO Wakf Board as well as the Principal Secretary to Government (Minority Welfare Department) apprising them about the necessity to hold the meetings on a regular basis to address the agendas and dispose of the pending issues thereby to make the Wakf Board proactively functional.
