Many properties ‘untraceable’, registered as prop land
Faizan Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Apr 4: Jammu and Kashmir Government has completed the geotagging of 15,109 out of 19,888 waqf properties across Kashmir division as on March 31, 2022. This amounts to almost 80% geotagging of the existing waqf properties so far.
Aimed at mapping the immovable assets under the Waqf boards, to ensure its proper utilisation and monetisation, the exercise is in full swing across the Union Territory and the geotagging of these properties is being done on Waqf Management System of India (WAMSI) portal, top sources revealed to Kashmir Despatch.
According to the official figures available with Kashmir Despatch, there are a 19888 waqf properties in the 10 districts of Kashmir division. Srinagar district has the highest number of waqf properties (4179), followed by Baramulla (3224), Budgam (3152), Anantnag (2998), Pulwama (2250), Kulgam (1398), Ganderbal (1138), Kupwara (557), Shopian (532) and Bandipora (460).
Out of these identified properties, 2403 have been geotagged in Anantnag, 2578 in Baramulla, 2236 in Budgam, 385 in Bandipora, 914 in Ganderbal, 1070 in Kulgam, 437 in Kupwara, 1604 in Pulwama, 384 in Shopian and 3098 in Srinagar district.
However, the concerned revenue authorities in various districts have reported that many properties included in the list of waqf could either not be traced, or were found to be recorded as proprietary land especially in the villages, sources informed Kashmir Despatch.
“During the surveys, many graveyards, dargahs (shrines), mazar-makbara were found to be as Aabadi Deh, or as proprietary land in villages. At some places graveyards shown as waqf properties could not be found on given survey numbers, while some surveys of the revenue department do not pertain to the places mentioned. So, this is going to take more time to reconcile the details according to the situation assessed during the on-spot verifications by the concerned field staff in all districts,” said an official in the Revenue Department, while talking to Kashmir Despatch.
He said the issues are prominent in rural areas where the details regarding khasra numbers provided by the waqf authorities are different from the available revenue records due to which GPS coordinates can not be uploaded.
The authorities have now been asked to reverify such cases and the field workers have accordingly started the process. According to the authorities, the exercise of geotagging is aimed at ensuring that these properties are not lost to encroachments and other counter ownership claims. J&K Wakf Board looks after around 32,000 properties, including shrines, mosques, educational institutions across the UT.
Geotagging of waqf properties in J&K is part of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs’ “Quami Waqf Boards Taraqqiati Scheme”. The deadline for the project has now been revised from March 2022 to November 2023.
