After madrasas, UP govt to start survey of Waqf properties

The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has directed all the district magistrates and commissioners to re-examine the documents of the properties which have been registered with the Waqf board.

Amid the ongoing survey of madrasas, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to undertake a survey of all the Waqf properties in the state. The Opposition reacted sharply to the government's decision, calling it a bid to "entangle people only in Hindu-Muslim issue".

On Tuesday, the UP government overturned a 1989 government order that mandated automatic registration of high or mounded land, barren land, Usar land as Waqf property.

The UP government has directed all the district magistrates and commissioners to re-examine the documents of all the properties which have been registered under Waqf since April 7, 1989 and to record the status of such lands.

Also Read | 'It is necessary': UP minister after Muslim clerics question madrasa survey

The government says that the cemetery, mosque and Idgah land should be demarcated properly because, on the basis of the 1989 ordinance, many such properties which were Usar, Banjar and Bhita in the revenue records were also declared as Waqf properties.

Under the guise of this order, some cultivable land was also automatically registered as Waqf property, sources said.

The government says that under the Muslim Waqf Act of 1960, no Waqf property can be automatically registered. Whereas in the 1989 order, it has come to the fore that many properties were registered with the Waqf board without any application, which is why the ordinance.