Encroachment of Wakf land in Mangaluru: BJP leader’s multi-crore complex raises eyebrows

coastaldigest.com news network
December 26, 2017

Amidst uproar over encroachments of the Wakf properties across India, a huge building has illegally come up on a Wakf land worth several crores of rupees in the heart of the city of Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka. Shockingly, the local administration too has helped a politician’s family to construct the illegal building on the land belonging to the historic Kutchi Memon Masjid in the city.

In fact, the illegal construction work on the Wakf land started around three years ago and now a six-story commercial-cum-residential complex has almost reached its completion after illegally crossing several legal hurdles. Reliable sources said that a leader of Bhartiya Janata Party had managed to mislead the officials of Mangaluru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) and obtain licence for the constriction with the help of an illegal ‘permission letter’ from a staff of the mosque.

Occupancy tenants

The 2.5 acres land belonging to the mosque and located at Golikatta Bazar in Bundar area of Mangaluru city had been declared as Wakf property in 1968 through a gazette notification. For the past few years, one Keshava Mijar and his family had been living in 69 cents of land of the same 2.5 acres as occupancy tenants (moola geni basis). Around three years ago, Keshava Mijar’s five children including Ravishankar Mijar, vice-president of Dakshina Kannada district unit of BJP, jointly started constructing a complex after demolition the small buildings on the land.

Completely illegal

Any development work or construction of building on a Wakf land without obtaining a no objection certificate (NOC) directly from the Wakf board will be considered illegal. However, a staff of the mosque, apparently violating his jurisdiction, had reportedly given a written permission using the official letterhead of the mosque to the tenants (Mijar siblings) to construct the complex. The tenants had reportedly paid him Rs 12.5 lakh for this favour. 

Even though the permission letter given by the staff of the mosque doesn’t authorise the tenants to construct the building, they went ahead with their multi-crore project. In December 2013, the MUDA provided single site approval to the tenants in violation of the rules or without verifying the documents of the land. In November 2014, the tenants received licence for the construction work from the MCC too. 

MCC serves notices

Even thought the illegal construction process started three years ago the state Wakf board recently woke up following a complaint and directed the local administration to stop the illegal construction work. After realising its blunder, the MCC served notices to Ravishankar Mijar and his siblings.

Rs 100 rent for 69 cents land!

However, the BJP leader and his siblings have claimed that the land legally belongs to them. “We, the five siblings, have obtained single site approval from the MUDA. Hence, we have all the rights to construct the building in this 69 cents land. Besides, we are still paying Rs 100 rent every month to the mosque without fail. There is no meaning in arguing that this is Wakf land,” says Ravishankar Mijar.

Legal action awaited

According to MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazir, the civic body had granted licence for the construction of the complex based on the single site approval issued by the MUDA in 2013 to Ravishankar Mijar and siblings. “However, now we have received information that the property belongs to the Wakf. Hence we will seek the opinion from the legal advisors before taking further action,” he said.

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil said that he had already directed the assistant commissioner to look into the issue. “If there are sufficient documents to prove that it’s a Wakf land then the building will be considered illegal and further action will be taken,” he said. 

Dakshina Kannada Wakf Advisory Committee chief Kanachur Monu holds MCC and MUDA officials responsible for illegal construction. “A tenant cannot become the owner of the Wakf land just by bribing some people. Even if he creates some documents, they are considered illegal documents. The tenants have illegally constructed a building on land worth Rs 30 crore. It is the responsibility of the authorities concerned to clear the encroachment at the earliest and reclaim the Wakf land,” he said.

Comments

Once Mr Anwar Manipadi submiting wakf property list in a TV Debate  howcome he missed this property 

 

May be he was with Pakistani wakf delegates at that time, these days our leadrs are good in attaending birthdays and shaadi and meeting  Paki delegates  and to be honest we dont have to Bribe people get letter  to show honesty  and Naionalist.

 

Abdullah
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017

Waqf board is sleeping ....

Mbeary
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017

Name the mosque staff 

Lets name and shame him

he has eaten the money of the yatheem

Naren Kotian
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017

This might be the case of encroachment of BJP land by mosque. I know mijar family and they are very honest and nationalist people. They don’t want the property of Pakistani supporters. It was BJP which exposed the encroachment of Wakf property by Congress minister. But Sidramullah’s Khan grace govt is fooling muzzis.

Reader
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017

This is not just the case of Mangalore. Everywhere in India we can see same situation. Unfortunately this scam is growing across the country. 

Pokar Beary
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017

Congress government will not take action because it knows that many of Congress bigwigs are doing the same. Paying Rs 10 monthly rent to the mosques and running giant commercial complexes and earning crores. 

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News Network
January 12,2020

Kochi, Jan 12: Golden Kayaloram, the fourth and last Maradu residential apartment was razed by controlled implosion in Kochi on Sunday afternoon as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

The building came crashing down, leaving the entire area in a cover of white smoke.

Earlier today, Jain Coral Cove, the apartment having the maximum number of housing units among the illegally built buildings, was razed down at 11:02 am.

The authorities coordinated the operations from a control room set up at the office of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.

As per municipal records, there were 122 housing units in Jain Coral Cove and 41 in Golden Kayaloram.

The prohibitory orders that were clamped in the area will remain imposed for the day. The district administration on Saturday imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

On Saturday, the 19-floor H2O Holy Faith apartment complex with 90 flats and the Alfa Serene complex with twin towers were demolished at 11 am and 11:05 am respectively.

The buildings are razed for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules. The directions in this regard were passed by the Supreme Court last year. 

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News Network
July 9,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 9: The State Education Minister of Karnataka clarifies that 2nd PUC result 2020 to be declared around July 20. The Minister’s tweet signals that Karnataka Second Pre- University examinations result is not releasing today, and likely to be declared around July 20, 2020.

Taking on his tweeter account Karnataka Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Thursday informed that the 2nd PUC results (Class 12th) would not be declared on Thursday, that is on July 9 and would be available around 20th July. Earlier students presuming the result on Thursday had been started asking Education Minister whether Karnataka 2nd PUC Results would be announced today or not.

Addressing the students quarries, on Thursday Education Minister S Suresh Kumar took to his tweeter account and tweeted, “2nd PUC results are not announcing today, the results would be released around July 20, 2020”, or the second last week of July. Education Minister took to his twitter account to console the students, he tweeted “Many students are calling me to know whether Second PUC results will be announced Today. I once again inform all that Second PUC results will come out around 20th July.

Earlier, the education minister informed that Karnataka Secondary School Leaving Certificate Exam, SSLC Results 2020 would release most likely by August first week and Second Pre-University (2nd PUC) Results 2020 would be declared by last week of July.

Karnataka earlier decided to hold the Board exams in spite of the opposition faced due to health risks over Corona Virus. The remaining SSLC & 2nd PUC examinations in Karnataka took place with the strict precautionary measures. The Education Minister himself carried out the inspection of many exam centres during the exams, a report said.

Evaluating the answer copies of exams, now results are to be declared in the month of July and August 2020. To get the result updates students are advised to keep visiting the official website of Department of Pre-University Education, Karnataka.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Beijing, Feb 24: The lockdown of Guo Jing's neighbourhood in Wuhan -- the city at the heart of China's new coronavirus epidemic -- came suddenly and without warning.

Unable to go out, the 29-year-old is now sealed inside her compound where she has to depend on online group-buying services to get food.

"Living for at least another month isn't an issue," Guo told news agency, explaining that she had her own stash of pickled vegetables and salted eggs.

But what scares her most is the lack of control -- first, the entire city was sealed off, and then residents were limited to exiting their compound once every three days.

Now even that has been taken away.

Guo is among some 11 million residents in Wuhan, a city in central Hubei province that has been under effective quarantine since January 23 as Chinese authorities race to contain the epidemic.

Since then, its people have faced a number of tightening controls over daily life as the death toll from the virus swelled to over 2,500 in China alone.

But the new rules this month barring residents from leaving their neighbourhoods are the most restrictive yet -- and for some, threaten their livelihoods.

"I still don't know where to buy things once we've finished eating what we have at home," said Pan Hongsheng, who lives with his wife and two children.

Some neighbourhoods have organised group-buying services, where supermarkets deliver orders in bulk.

But in Pan's community, "no one cares".

"The three-year-old doesn't even have any milk powder left," Pan told news agency, adding that he has been unable to send medicine to his in-laws -- both in their eighties -- as they live in a different area.

"I feel like a refugee."

The "closed management of neighbourhoods is bound to bring some inconvenience to the lives of the people", Qian Yuankun, vice secretary of Hubei's Communist Party committee, said at a press briefing last week.

Authorities on Monday allowed healthy non-residents of the city to leave if they never had contact with patients, but restrictions remained on those who live in Wuhan.

Demand for group-buying food delivery services has rocketed with the new restrictions, with supermarkets and neighbourhood committees scrambling to fill orders.

Most group-buying services operate through Chinese messaging app WeChat, which has ad-hoc chat groups for meat, vegetables, milk -- even "hot dry noodles", a famous Wuhan dish.

More sophisticated shops and compounds have their own mini-app inside WeChat, where residents can choose packages priced by weight before orders are sent in bulk to grocery stores.

In Guo's neighbourhood, for instance, a 6.5-kilogramme (14.3-pound) set of five vegetables, including potatoes and baby cabbage, costs 50 yuan ($7.11).

"You have no way to choose what you like to eat," Guo said. "You cannot have personal preferences anymore."

The group-buying model is also more difficult for smaller communities to adopt, as supermarkets have minimum order requirements for delivery.

"To be honest, there's nothing we can do," said Yang Nan, manager of Lao Cun Zhang supermarket, which requires a minimum of 30 orders.

"We only have four cars," she said, explaining that the store did not have the staff to handle smaller orders.

Another supermarket told AFP it capped its daily delivery load to 1,000 orders per day.

"Hiring staff is difficult," said Wang Xiuwen, who works at the store's logistics division, adding that they are wary about hiring too many outsiders for fear of infection.

Closing off communities has split the city into silos, with different neighbourhoods rolling out controls of varying intensity.

In some compounds, residents have easier access to food -- albeit a smaller selection than normal -- and one woman said her family pays delivery drivers to run grocery errands.

Her compound has not been sealed off either, the 24-year-old told AFP under condition of anonymity, though they are limited to one person leaving at a time.

Some districts have implemented their own rules, such as prohibiting supermarkets from selling to individuals, forcing neighbourhoods to buy in bulk or not at all.

"In the neighbourhood where I live, the reality is really terrible," said David Dai, who is based on the outskirts of Wuhan.

Though his apartment complex has organised group-buying, Dai said residents were unhappy with price and quality.

"A lot of tomatoes, a lot of onions -- they were already rotten," he told , estimating over a third of the food had to be thrown away.

His family must "totally depend" on themselves, added the 49-year-old, who has resorted to saving and drying turnip skins to add nutrients to future meals.

The uncertainty of not knowing when the controls will be lifted is also frustrating, said Ma Chen, a man in his 30s who lives alone.

"I have no way of knowing how much (food) I should buy."

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