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Image Credit: Unsplash, Twitter/Ashwini Upadhyay
Waqf Boards Illegally Encroached On Lands In India? No, Viral Claim Is False!
India, 20 Sep 2022 7:17 AM GMT
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We found that the term ‘encroachment’ in the viral image indicates the number of Waqf board properties encroached upon by others. The infographic does not indicate the properties encroached illegally by the Waqf board, as claimed by the netizens.
An infographic detailing the data on Waqf properties has gone viral across social media. The infographic has been shared with the claim that several properties have been illegally encroached on across India by the Waqf board.
Claim:
Social media personality Ashwini Upadhyay tweeted the infographic with the following claim,
"In 2020, the Waqf Board was the owner of 6.1 lakh properties and has also illegally occupied about 2 lakh properties. All the members of the Waqf Board are Muslims. SC to hear plea seeking to abolish Waqf Act on 19th."
Anshul Saxena, a social media personality, posted the same infographic with the following claim, "6.1 lakh Waqf properties across India reported till January 2020. And, many properties have been illegally encroached on across India by the Waqf board. Here are details till January 2020."
Other netizens amplified this claim further.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the claim and found it to be misleading. The infographic does not indicate the properties encroached illegally by the Waqf board, as claimed by the netizens.
As per the Ninth report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Wakf presented to the Rajya Sabha on October 23, 2008, waqf is a religious endowment in Islam, which could either be a building or plot of land that can be devoted to the Muslim religious or charitable purposes or for the welfare of the poor and the needy belonging to the Muslim community."
We conducted a reverse image search on the image shared by the netizens. We then came across the same image in a Times of India article published on February 8, 2020.
The Times of India report provided details about the non-enumeration of waqf properties across India. The report notes that several State Waqf Boards own over 6.1 lakh Waqf immovable properties across India. Out of these properties, nearly 3% have been encroached upon. The TOI report notes that as per data from the national Waqf Management System of India dated January 31, 2020, various State Waqf Boards own 6,16,732 properties.
Most of these properties are in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The TOI report also mentions that these encroachments have been made both by individuals and organizations.
The report notes, "Data accessed from the ministry of minority affairs shows that nearly 3% of the 6.1 lakh properties have been encroached upon as of December 2019."
We then conducted another keyword search with relevant keywords for waqf board properties being encroached. We came across a Business Standard article published on November 21, 2019.
The Business Standard article noted that Punjab has the highest number of Waqf Board properties under encroachment, with such properties numbering 16,937 Waqf Board properties under encroachment in the country.
In response, the Minorities Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi notified the Lok Sabha that a total of 16,937 Waqf Board properties were encroached on in the country, with the highest number at 5,610 in Punjab.
We also came across a report by New Indian Express published on December 14, 2018. The report notes that as many as 16,844 waqf properties in India have been encroached upon by private and public bodies.
Most encroachment cases have been reported from Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. In the New Indian Express report, the Minister of Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, stated that Waqf properties were found to have been encroached on in 20 states and two Union Territories.
In our Fact Check, we came across a document on the Press Information Bureau website. The document was published on 29th June 2017.
In the document, the former minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi says, "During the last three years, more than two thousand criminal cases have been filed in connection with encroachment on waqf properties by waqf mafias, and strict action has been taken against several people sitting at top posts in waqf boards."
Conclusion:
In our Fact Check, we found that the term 'encroachment' in the viral image indicates the number of Waqf board properties encroached upon by others. The infographic does not indicate the properties encroached illegally by the Waqf board, as claimed by the netizens. Thus, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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