Villagers may lose generational holdings as Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board auctions land

And the issue of land ownership or lease isn’t just being faced by farmers, even the persons who participated in these auctions organised by the Waqf Board are feeling cheated.  The Waqf Board auctioned a piece of land which was leased by a young entrepreneur Ainul Yaqeen for setting up agriculture based startups. However, he has been making the rounds of tehsildar and local police station for the handing over of the piece of land without any success so far. “I have been trying to seek possession of this land. However, the Revenue Department is not coming forth in my support. I have already submitted over Rs 5 lakh for the land six months ago to the Board after the successful bid, but haven’t been able to get physical possession of it till date,” Yaqeen said.  Due to non-handing over of possession, Yaqeen’s plans for establishing a modern fish farm and hybrid agriculture farm with aquaponics and green houses on the leased land has currently been put on a backburner.  Interestingly, Tehsildar Umraoganj Hemendra Sharma expressed ignorance regarding any land auction or leasing process having been initiated in the villages under his jurisdiction. “I don’t have any such information. Our records do not show that this patch of land belongs to the Waqf Board. No one has informed the Revenue Department of any such land leasing program being implemented by the Waqf Board so there is no question of facilitating any land possession changes in the villages,” Sharma said.  Due to lack of coordination between various departments, the physical possession of these leased out Waqf lands has still not been handed over to the bidders. A situation that is seemingly common across various districts of the state. Tehelka.com spoke to the Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board chairman, Sanwar Patel, who acknowledged that there were issues that needed to be addressed in the handing over of the land to auction winners. “We have written to the Revenue Department to help in the process of land transfer. However, we haven’t been able to secure their help so far on the issue of land possession transfer,” Patel added. “We want to use the land for the welfare of the community. Unless it is put to use for society, the economic development of our people won’t be possible,” Patel said, on the need to offer land for development of agriculture based projects. He said the program was initiated to help the underprivileged youth of the community by setting up startups under various government schemes and also to generate revenue through these Waqf land auctions and use these funds for the betterment of the community.   He also hoped that the proposed amendments to the Waqf Act would ensure addressing of these issues.