Hyderabad: At least 100 mosques in the city, apart from several others across the state, are in need of renovation. The mosques were endowed with the Wakf Board for decades and date back to the Qutb Shahi and Asaf jahi times.
With a little help from the authorities, some religious cum social organisations are taking up the task of renovating the mosques.
According to Mr Mohd Akram, who takes up the task of renovation of mosques and resuming prayers, most of the religious places find a place in the TS Wakf Board records but the board has no idea of their location.
“There are about 500 mosques across the state including about 100 in the city and outskirts where prayers were stopped as the structures were old and dilapidated. Previously, we received some financial assistance from the government to maintain the mosques but nothing is being given now,” Mr Akram said.
The intervention of local youth groups and religious organisations has resulted in prayers resuming in 27 mosques after they were renovated. “The Wakf Board is helpless as mosques have been mired in court cases or simply has no judicial powers to clear the encroachers,” he said.
Mr Akarm said the board was short staffed and each Wakf Inspector had to oversee an area of about 10 to 15 sq km. “There are one or two inspectors for every district, making the monitoring of the Wakf properties difficult,” he said.
Mr Ilyas Shamshi, a social activist, said that the TS Wakf Board entered the picture only when people took the onus of renovating the mosques and opening them for prayers.
Asked about such mosques, TS Wakf Board chief Mohammed Saleem assured that funds would be provided for such mosques. He said a few mosques were under the control of the archaeological department and they were taking up the issue with them.
