The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Chaos reigns supreme in Wakf Board

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Chaos reigns supreme in Wakf Board

By J.S. Ifthekhar

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 28. It's all play and no work at the Wakf Board. The Board Chairman, Mohd. Saleem, and other members are at loggerheads. While Mr. Saleem and the Chief Executive Officer, Mirza Hasan Ali Baig, are not on talking terms, the Board and the Government are on a collision course, and the latter has served a show cause notice to it.

If it sounds strange, consider this. Mr. Saleem's attempts to hold a board meeting have come a cropper. Not once, but twice in a span of four days. Reason -- all the relevant files, agenda and minutes of the previous meetings have not been made available. Not just this, the CEO, the section officer and 26 other employees have done the vanishing trick and an infuriated Mr. Saleem has suspended two officers and served charge memo on the rest.

Chief refuses to quit

Yes, with the Wakf Board anything can happen. Ever since the change of guard, the board is on notice. Minority members of the Congress have their eyes set on the board and pressurising the Government to dissolve it. While dilly-dallying a bit, some members such as Asaduddin Owaisi (MP), Syed Akbar Nizamuddin, Zaheeruddin Ali Soofi and Syed Omer Jaleel have quit, and Mr. Saleem and others refuse to budge.

Revenue loss

The differences within the Board members and the Government have brought the work to a grinding halt. As many as 137 items of urgent importance are hanging fire for the last couple of months as the Board couldn't transact any business for want of quorum or non-cooperation by members. As a result managing committees of several Wakf institutions could not be constituted leading to loss of revenue to the Board.

Charges denied

However, things have taken a dramatic turn with Ajoyendra Pyal, the Principal Secretary, Minorities Welfare Department, asking the CEO not to convene any Board meeting until a writ petition pending before the High Court is disposed off. "I am just carrying out Government's orders in not making available files and records," Mr. Baig said.

He denied that he had not come to office on September 25 when the Board meeting was convened. He had gone on urgent court work and informed Mr. Saleem. As for other employees, Mr. Baig said they had come late to the office, a normal practice at the Board. Records showed that 32 employees came late on September 24 and 23 the next day.

Meeting convened

On Tuesday also the Board could not hold its adjourned meeting as the relevant files were not available. Apart from Mr. Saleem, there were three other members - Naushad Ali, Mir Yousuf Ali and K.M. Safiullah. The meeting started at 10.30 a.m and adjourned after half an hour as the CEO was "not present".

The members postponed the meeting for Wednesday and sent a note to the CEO asking him to be present with all the files. The latter referred the matter to the Government. Later Mr. Saleem announced that the next Board meeting would be held on October 6.

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