DC Impact: Revenue Dept To Restore Back ‘Record Room’ With Waqf Board

Hyderabad: The revenue department will hand over the Waqf record room in Haj House to the Waqf Board, nearly nine years after it took exclusive access and control to the crucial record room. The direction was communicated to Waqf Board chief executive officer (CEO) Mohammed Asadullah by Hyderabad collector Dr Priyanka Ala.

Though demands for the restoration of access to Wakf record room grew after the murder of High Court advocate Khaja Moizuddin, the district collector noted in her letter that the action was intended to ensure the timely uploading of data to the UMEED portal.

A report, ‘Demand to open Waqf record room grows’ published in Deccan Chronicle on June 2 highlighted growing demand for opening of the locked ‘record room’ after the murder of Khaja Moizuddin over Wakf properties.

The record room at Haj House, Nampally, was sealed the revenue department in November 2017, on the orders of then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The then BRS government justified the seizure as an emergency step to prevent the tampering or destruction of historical land records.

For nine years, the record room remained locked under the custody of the Hyderabad district collector and a tahsildar was posted to monitor the facility and manage file retrievals.

Explaining the reason for handing over the control to the Wakf Board, the Hyderabad district collector wrote, “The CEO reported that old records and closed files pertaining to the AP State Waqf Board remain in the possession of the TS Waqf Board. Despite multiple requests from the government of Andhra Pradesh, the Central Waqf Council, and the Government of India, these records including survey forms, district-wise gazettes, and Board resolutions have not yet been transferred. The CEO has requested the release of the Record Room to facilitate the transfer of these records and to enable the uploading of Waqf property details onto the government of India’s UMEED portal.”

The record room of the Telangana State Waqf Board houses a vast collection of historical, legal, and administrative documents. These documents protect, verify, and track thousands of Islamic endowment properties such as mosques, dargahs, and graveyards across the state. The documents preserved in the record room span multiple eras, including the Nizam period, and are primarily written in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, and English.