Telangana Waqf Board Records Sealed

In a sudden move, the Telangana government ordered the sealing of the records section and and other related wings in the State Waqf Board. A team led by RDO Chandrakala and a battery of other officials, including MROs sealed the offices of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The entire operation which was conducted under tight police vigil appears to have rattled many officials, according to sources. The swift action by the government follows reports of irregularities in the Waqf Board relating to waqf lands.

It is learnt that in a review meeting conducted recently, the waqf board officials were unable to furnish satisfactory responses which prompted Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to order the sealing of records, followed by a thorough probe. The government proposes to set up a special team comprising high-level officials to inquire into allegations of rampant corruption in the board, sources say.

KCR is learnt to have directed officials to seek details of all waqf lands, a thorough record of all waqf properties down to each mandal of the state, income earned by the board in each district, staff strength and other particulars. The Chief Minister is reported to have expressed his ire over incompetent staff on whose salaries lakhs and crores of rupees were being wasted.

The Chief Minister is said to have remarked that merely listing out 33,000 properties as those belonging to the waqf board was not sufficient. He is reported to have observed that the revenue department would not treat incomplete records as authentic. Illegal and irregular registrations will be scrapped and that guilty officials will not be spared, the Chief Minister is learnt to have clearly stated.