Hyderabad: Deputy CM Mohammed Mahmood Ali has ordered a probe into the irregularities reported at three Dargahs in Telangana since various scams and discrepancies under the Telangana State Wakf Board have surfaced.
Minorities Welfare Department’s Special Secretary Syed Omer Jaleel will be conducting the probe into the matter and report to the Government
Scams and discrepancies in the activities of the Telangana State Wakf Board continue to emerge with Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali ordering an inquiry into the irregularities reported at three dargahs in the state.
Syed Omer Jaleel, special secretary of the Minorities Welfare Department, will conduct the probe and submit a report to the government.
The probe was ordered after various reports have surfaced regarding flouting of rules by the TS Wakf Board in handling handi collections of Jahangeer Peeran dargah of Kothur, the Dargah Hazrath Janpahad Shaheed, and the Dargah Arvapally of Suryapet.
Jahangir Peeran dargah’s hundi collection was approximately 1.62crores whereas Dargah Hazrath Janpahad Shaheed’s collection was nearly Rs 82 lakh last year said the sources.
It was this year that few people were nominated by the board to make hundi collections and asked them to pay Rs 96 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively.
Speaking about the probe Deputy CM said, “Discrepancies have been noted in the manner in which contracts were given out. Officials gave the contracts on the basis of nominations, instead of through a tender process. An inquiry will reveal if there were irregularities, and the culprits will be nailed”.
M.A. Mannan Farooqui, Wakf Board Chief Executive officer said Hundi collection is not included in the contracts with the two dargahs and that the contracts will be nullified if any discrepancies were found with the dargahs.
Mohd Saleem, TS Wakf Board Chairman, said, “There are court orders against auctioning of the hundi, so we did not include them in the contracts. There are no discrepancies.”
A unanimous order was passed by Wakf Board probing into various irregularities reported since the Board’s dissolution in the past four years until new Boards election eight months ago, but so far, no such inquiry was carried out.since the board was managed by the Senior Officials.
Syed Omer Jaleel, Minorities welfare department Special Secretary, Mohammed Asadullah, Revenue department’s senior official and M.J. Akbar, Indian Forest Service official were authorized to handle the boards function until the new Board was formed.
M.A. Mannan Farooqui TS Wakf Board’s Chief executive was authorized to conduct the probe into various irregularities after an order was passed a month ago following various complaints received in the absence of Board. sources say he plans to discuss with the Board to assign the task to some other official since the board managed are all Senior officials to Mannan Farooqui.
Deputy CM recently told that the senior officials will not be probed.
Replying to that, Ather Moin a social activist demanded that all officials should be probed saying “If they are clean, let them face an inquiry”