08 March,2017 08:15 AM IST | | Dharmendra Jore
A couple of days after the CEO of the State Wakf Board was suspended in a land allotment case in Nashik, yet another accusation related to a wakf land was made in the Budget Session of the state legislative Assembly on Tuesday
Naseem Khan
Naseem Khan
The issues plaguing wakf board over land scams just keep mounting. A couple of days after the CEO of the State Wakf Board was suspended in a land allotment case in Nashik, yet another accusation related to a wakf land was made in the Budget Session of the state legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
Congress MLA Naseem Khan alleged that the wakf land of Lalshah Baba Dargah in Lalbaug had been illegally handed over to a private builder to build houses for slum dwellers. He also raised a question related to the Nashik land issue, accusing BJP leaders of influencing officials to allot a land owned by Dudhari Masjid Trust to a developer.
He said Wakf board CEO Naseeba Patel had given a no objection certificate for facilitating possession of the said flats, but had earlier told the Supreme Court that she was not authorised to take any decision in this regard. He hypothesised that she had succumbed to pressure from the top people in the BJP government. He added that it was a disputed land, as a case pertaining to it has not been decided yet, suggesting that the timeline of events is between April 2016 and February 2017.
"The CM talks about transparency in his government, but see what has happened in these two cases. The CM must initiate a probe by a sitting judge of the Bombay High Court," Khan demanded.
Separate conference
Later, the MLA held a press conference in the Vidhan Bhavan and claimed that during his tenure as minority affairs minister, the Congress government has recovered over 600 acres of wakf land from illegal possession.
About the Lalbaug land, the former minister said the market cost of the 20,000 sqm land, of which the builder was allowed to develop 64 lakh sqft, was Rs 2,000 crore.
"The entire scam, if calculated at a market rate, should be worth Rs 16,000 crore," he alleged.
Incidentally, CM Devendra Fadnavis was not present in the house when Khan made the allegations. The government is now expected to respond to allegations in days to come, said a source in the government.
