New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) The raging controversy over Munambam land dispute has ignited further, with Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar escalating the matter with the Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday and demanding urgent redressal of residents’ concerns regarding the registration of ‘highly contentious’ pieces of land on the UMEED portal.

Chandrasekhar, in a letter to Rijiju, claimed that the Waqf Board registered more than 400 acres of land in Munambam on the portal without complying with the provisions of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) framework and the applicable provisions of the Waqf Act.

He called it a brazen violation of the stipulated guidelines and demanded that the Centre take action at the earliest.

Chandrasekhar’s request for the Centre’s intervention comes on the back of Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s assurances to people yesterday that residents affected by the Munamban land dispute would not be evicted from their homes.

Notably, the Munambam land dispute has become a politically sensitive issue in Kerala, with several residents voicing concerns over the ownership status of their land.

This has resulted in Kerala BJP sharpening its attack on the newly formed LDF government and accusing it of betraying the promises to local residents.

In his letter to Rijiju, Chandrasekhar said, “Today, I submitted a written request to Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju seeking the exercise of the Centre’s supervisory powers to remove properties that have been illegally uploaded on the UMEED portal.”

He further said that under the existing laws, only ‘Mutawalli’ is authorised to upload Waqf property records on the UMEED portal, but here, the authority rests with Farook College.

“Yet, without following due process, the Waqf Board unilaterally registered the property,” he said in the startling charge.

He also called it a fallout of “vote-bank politics” as practiced by the UDF and accused it of acting under pressure from the minority groups.

A day ago, Kerala State Waqf Board chairman K S Hamza stated that the disputed land at Munambam was a Waqf property and that it had been registered on the UMEED portal, along with other Waqf assets in the state.

–IANS

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