On Sunday, 11th September 2022, Shadab Shams – the newly elected president of the Uttarakhand Waqf Board – announced that the board plans to destroy unauthorized constructions on its lands across the state as soon as possible.
Shadab Shams was unanimously elected as the president of the 10-member-board on September 7. Shams claims that Waqf properties worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore are being unlawfully occupied throughout Uttarakhand.
To remove these encroachments on its own, the board would need bulldozers. At its meeting on September 15, the board will propose purchasing or renting the bulldozers required to demolish the illegal encroachments on the Waqf property all across the state.
While speaking to a news agency PTI, Shams said, “Thousands of acres of Waqf land is illegally occupied in different parts of the state. We want to free our properties from the clutches of the mafia to make them useful for people they are really meant for.” He said that notices are being served to illegal occupiers, and the crackdown will start any time next week.
He added, “The action will begin with Prem Nagar in Dehradun, where 14 bighas of Wakf land is occupied by Muslims from Aligarh, who came here years ago to work in factories in the Selaqui area and built their houses there. Around 200 families reside on such lands. Who knows who they are? They may be people with dubious antecedents. Uttarakhand is not a Dharamshala.”
Shadab Shams informed that the Waqf Board intends to use the site for progressive purposes such as establishing shelter houses for the underprivileged, coaching institutions, and skill development centers for the youth. He also made it clear that the Waqf board also has important objectives for changing the curriculum at its madrassas, reducing the time spent memorizing religious texts and substituting NCERT book lessons for those hours.
Shadab Shams said, “Uttarakhand Board syllabus will be introduced in about 103 madrassas being run by the Waqf Board and NCERT books will be taught there. We want modern education to be imparted to children at the madrassas as in any other school. We will create a system in our madrassas where only two hours will be allocated for teaching the Quran and the Hadees to students. The rest of the hours will be dedicated to teaching other subjects as in any other school.”
He added, “Why shouldn’t students produced by Madrassas also become doctors and engineers? I want Muslims in the country to follow the example of former president APJ Abdul Kalam and become progressive nationalists rather than fanatics. We want total transparency in our activities.”
The Uttarakhand Waqf Board is now headed by BJP leader Shadab Shams. Shams was elected unopposed as president in the election held at the secretariat on Wednesday. Four opposition members on the 10-member board also agreed on his name. The process of election of the Waqf Board was going on for the last eight months. After the formation of a 10-member board, the president is elected from these. The process of electing the president could not begin earlier due to the Champawat by-election. Later, the date for this was fixed for September 7.
Shams, who was Bharatiya Janata Party’s state spokesperson, had earlier served as vice-chairman of the 15-point program implementation committee. The term of the chairman of the board is five years. After being elected president, Shams, along with other board members, met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Later, he held discussions with the waqf board members and officials on various topics.
