In a significant move, the A.P. Wakf Board has accepted a 10-year-old enquiry report and decided to take over the group of educational institutions run by the Madina Educational Society in the city on Wakf premises.
Similar action is also proposed against the Makka Madina Allauddin Trust for gross irregularities. The board further resolved to initiate criminal action against the management of these institutions.
“There is a prima facie case of irregularities in the management of both the institutions,” said board Special Officer Mohd. Iqbal. He told presspersons here on Wednesday that five properties of the society at Nampally, Himayatnagar, Hyderguda, Vitthalwadi and Mangalhat had been taken over. “Students education will not be disturbed, we will constitute a committee to run the institutions,” he said.
K.M. Arifuddin had built the educational institutions with public donations yet “anything built on Wakf land belongs to Wakf Board, Mr. Iqbal remarked and said disciplinary action would also be initiated against the officials of the board who had colluded with the former.
The officer was surprised to note that Mr. Arifuddin was the Mutawwali and secretary of the Wakf institutions and leased out the properties to himself for 30 years in contravention of rules. Though the accounts were submitted, they were not properly audited. The Wakf fund paid by him was a pittance of Rs. 11,770 per annum, he pointed out.
The Allauddin Trust, which managed 450 shops at Patharghatti, paid Wakf fund of Rs. 18 lakh per annum. “The board expects not less than Rs. 3-4 crore from these institutions,” Mr. Iqbal said. The High Court too had recently commented that the board had not found time in the last 10 years to consider the enquiry report against Mr. Arifuddin and wanted appropriate action.
The enquiry was done in response to the House Committee orders issued in 1997. Though the enquiry found many lapses in the functioning of the Majlis-e-Shura and the educational institutions run by the MES, the report had been in cold storage since 2003.
Mr. Iqbal, who took over the board recently, has decided to reopen the case and implement the report. Letters have been sent to Collectors to register lands belonging to dargahs, mosques and ashoorkhanas in the name of the Wakf institutions and not individuals.
