Telangana has become the first State in the country to give executive and judicial power to the State Waqf Board to enable it to effectively protect the vast Waqf properties and utilise them for the development of the Muslim minority.
State deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali, while flagging off the first batch of Haj pilgrims from the State at the Haj House in Hyderabad, said that the State Cabinet has already approved the idea of giving more teeth to the board.
“With this move we are expecting that the income of the Waqf Board will go up by Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 crore”, he told a gathering of the Haj pilgrims and others.
Presently, a united Waqf Board was working for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as it was among the bodies in the tenth scheduled and were not divided as part of bifurcation.
Encroachment and plundering of Waqf properties and the misuse of funds has been a major bane of the Muslim minority and the Telangana Government was now trying to rectify the situation, Mahmood Ali said.
Reiterating the commitment of TRS Government to the welfare of the minorities, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the Government had earmarked a welfare budget of Rs 1,000 crore for the minorities. Similarly, the Government was planning to perform 150,000 to 200,000 marriages of Muslim girls under which every girl will get an assistance of Rs 51000.
Pointing out that Telangana under the rule of Nizam was the most richest and prosperous State in the country, Mahmood Ali said that it will now regain its past glory.
While the first batch of Haj pilgrims from Telangana had 350 people and it has arrived safely in Saudi Arabia, second batch of 350 pilgrims also left Hyderabad.