Govt. conspiring to grab Waqf lands, says Mulayam

Saturday April 23, 2011 10:03:18 PM, IANS

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of attempting to grab waqf properties across the country through an executive order and vowed to oppose the measure.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the union cabinet has recently taken a decision to entrust control of all waqf properties to a newly-constituted National Waqf Development Agency and this will lead to "only 24 percent of the waqf properties continuing to vest with the Muslim community, while the new agency will get all rights over the remaining 76 percent".

"Any such move is against the interest of the Muslim community and the Samajwadi Party will, therefore, oppose the proposal tooth and nail," he said.

"Waqf property belongs to the Muslims and no government can be allowed to usurp that right from the community. After all waqf property belongs to Muslims, whose ancestors had left it behind for them," he said.

Claiming that while he was in power in Uttar Pradesh, he had made it a point to ensure complete protection of all waqf properties and many such properties had also been clearly demarcated by raising of boundary walls around them, he said unless the central government revoked its decision, "such a move was bound to send very wrong signals to the entire Muslim community".

"Muslims may even start thinking that their property is not safe in India, which in turn may have very serious repercussions," he said.

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