Friday, 28 April 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The chairman of the Uttarakhand Waqf board Shadab Shams has said that he would resign if he fails to fulfill his pledge to remove encroachments from the properties of Waqf board. He said that properties worth crores of rupees of the board have been encroached upon in the last 20 years.
Shams said that very influential and powerful people have encroached the land of the board in collusion with the employees of the board. He said that about 200 bighas of land on board in Piran Kaliyar have been encroached by those who were connected with the sacred shrine of the Muslims.
Shams who is a senior leader of BJP said that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has adopted a stand of zero tolerance for corruption and this should be implemented in the Waqf board. He accepted that he is facing resistance from within the board but claimed that the community is with him on the issue. “ The land encroached in the Piran Kaliyar is the land on which a fair used to be held. About one lakh people are ready to write a petition with their blood to free the land of the sacred shrine,’’ he said.
Shams said that he would do his best to remove the encroachments from the Waqf properties and would not hesitate to step down if he fails in this endeavour.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Waqf board has become very active after Shams took over its charge.The board registered cases under different sections of Indian Penal Code against the former Member of Parliament (MP) and strongman Akbar Ahmed Dumpy and seven others for illegal encroachment on 28 acres of land in Ramgarh of Nainital district. The property is valued at about Rs 100 crore.
