It is a shock and sadness for the residents of Thiruchendurai village in Tiruchirapalli district as the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board has reportedly claimed the entire village to be its property. The sub-registrar asked one of the seller to obtain NoC from Waqf board in order to sell his land.
According to a vernacular daily, one Rajagopal of Mullikarupur owning agricultural land in Thiruchendurai village had entered into an agreement to sell one acre two cents of his land to one Rajarajeshwari. When he visited the Joint III Sub-Registrar office in Trichy to register sale deed, to his shock and bewilderment, the sub-registrar told him that the land cannot be registered as it belongs to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. The office also had informed him that he has to get a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board office in Chennai to sell the land.
Rajagopal questioned why he should get a NoC from the Waqf Board to sell a land that he purchased in 1992, the sub-registrar reportedly told him that this is the procedure for any land to be deeded in Tiruchendurai village. He was also shown a copy of the 250-page Waqf Board letter to the Registration Department along with documents that the entire village belongs to them and that those who come to register a deed for a land in the village, should get a NoC from them.
In that letter, the Waqf Board has said that tens of thousands of acres of land all over Tamil Nadu are their’s. Rajagopal later shared his ordeal to the villagers who are now concerned about the takeover of their lands by the Waqf Board.
Tamil Nadu Waqf Board is a statutory body established under the Waqf Act 1954 that supervises and manages Waqf institutions and administers Waqf properties.
It is not clear whey they have noted that when they already have the revenue department documents including patta, chitta, adangal, revenue ‘A’ registration, encumbrance certificate, how the Waqf Board can claim Thiruchenthurai village as its own property”. The villagers have taken it up with the District Collector who has reportedly assured to look into the matter and take a decision based on that.
BJP leader from Trichy Allur Prakash was quoted as saying in the article “the picturesque agricultural hamlet is located on the south bank of Cauvery River where large majority of the people are Hindus. What is the relationship between the Waqf Board and Thiruchenthurai Village?”.
“There is the Manendiyavalli Sametha Chandrasekhara Swamy temple, which has a ‘paadal petra sthalam (sung by Tamil Śaiva poet-saints). Various documents and evidence say this temple is over1,500 years old. The temple owns 369 acres of land in both inside and outside Tiruchenthurai village. Does this temple land also belong to the Waqf Board?” questions Prakash.
It is believed that Lord Renganathar of the Srirangam Temple wakes up in Tiruchenthurai village during the Adibrahmotsava festival of Panguni month. “When individual of the village hold the land documents, how can the Waqf Board declare it to be its property without any evidence? Even if the Waqf Board has issued a letter claiming the lands to be its own, how can the higher officials of the Registration Department order not to register the deed without verifying the claims of Waqf Board?”
Apart from villages like Thiruchenthurai and Kadiakurichi, regions in and around Chennai also have this problem where lands have been claimed by the Waqf Board.
Recently Madras HC directed the petitioner to get NoC from local Jamaat to install and celebrate Vinayagar Chuathurthi. Hindus are not allowed to enter into areas where Muslims are in majority. Candidates of BJP and its allies can’t canvass there. Police denied permission to take tricolor national flag rally and Vinayagar idol immersion procession in Muslim, Christian dominated, church, mosque located areas. An appropriate action is needed before it turns into a mini Pakistan.
