GPS

Survey & Encroachment

Value Of Properties

BENGALURU: As the Supreme court hears a PIL alleging non-enumeration of waqf properties across the country, data accessed by TOI shows that there are more than 6.1 lakh immovable properties owned by various State Waqf Boards (SWBs), more than a quarter of which (1.6 lakh) are in Uttar Pradesh (UP), while nearly 3% of these properties across India have been encroached upon.According to the data from the national Waqf Management System of India (WAMSI) project, as on January 31, 2020, there are 6,16,732 properties owned by various SWBs.Of these, UP has 1.5 lakh Sunni and 12,229 Shia Waqf properties, followed by 80,480 in West Bengal and 54,194 in Karnataka. The ministry of minority affairs (MMA) and the Central Waqf Council do not distinguish between Shia and Sunni ownership in other states.Just these three states account for nearly half (49%) of all Waqf properties in India, while Tamil Nadu (53,486) is close on the heels of Karnataka, Kerala stands in the fifth position with 42,348 properties (see graphic for full list).Of the total properties, WASMI database shows that GPS survey has been completed only for 53,210 properties (8%), while an offline survey has been done for another 13,528 properties. Together, these account for only 11% of all properties. Another 45,654 are listed as properties whose photographs have been collected.While all this data is up to January 31, 2020, separate data accessed from the ministry of minority affairs shows that nearly 3% of the 6.1 lakh properties have been encroached upon as of December 2019.The ministry, while stating that the encroachments are both by individuals and organisations, reveals that 16,931 of them are encroached.Most of the encroachments are reported in Punjab (5,610), followed by Madhya Pradesh (3,240) and West Bengal with 3,082. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have reported 1,335 and 862 encroachments, respectively.In the PIL being heard by the SC, the petitioners have claimed that properties worth lakhs of crores of rupees are being misused, prompting the court to seek complete details from the ministry of minority affairs.Neither the WAMSI database nor the ministry data accessed by TOI made the monetary value of the properties available. The petitioners, while alleging misuse, also claimed that no state or Waqf board had maintained data on properties.