Minorities Commission to ask government to establish Wakf divisional office for coastal districts

Karnataka State Minorities Commission chairman Abdul Azeem on Monday, November 27, said the commission will recommend to the government to establish a divisional office of the Wakf Board in Mangaluru covering the three coastal districts.

Karnataka State Minorities Commission chairman Abdul Azeem on Monday, said the commission will recommend to the government to establish a divisional office of the Wakf Board in Mangaluru covering the three coastal districts.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Azeem said the divisional office was required in Mangaluru to protect Wakf properties in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts. This would also avoid people from these districts travelling all the way to Mysuru to get their issues addressed, he said.

Stating that already four divisional offices of the board were functional, Mr. Azeem said he would request Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to set apart funds for the Mangaluru divisional office in the next Budget. He said the Commission has already recommended to the government to set up taskforces at the district and state levels for the protection of Wakf properties. He said only about 30,000 acres of properties were available out of nearly 1 lakh acres of Wakf properties in Karnataka.

The chairman suggested to the police to constitute peace committees in every mohalla comprising people who have respect and command in the community. Peace meetings should also be held at police station levels. Efficient police officers should be posted in areas identified as communally sensitive.

Mr. Azeem said though people in Dakshina Kannada were religious and disciplined, some get carried away by religious sentiments with small issues turning to communal clashes. Increased drug abuse among the youth was one of the main reasons for the increased unrest and the police should curb the menace, he said.

Mr. Azeem chaired a meeting to hear grievances of minority communities members earlier in the day, wherein people demanded higher budgetary allocation for the communities by the governments.

Those running care centres complained of reduction in grants by the government, particularly post-COVID 19 and said they were struggling to run the institutions. Some demanded simplification of the procedure to apply for loans from the Minorities Welfare Department.