The Telangana State Waqf Board (TSWB) on Thursday sought to recover rental dues running into a few lakhs from a tenant of a property in Bandlaguda endowed to the Ilahi Nooria, an institution under the Muslim endowment panel’s direct management.
TSWB staff arrived at a function hall — Noori Palace — and met its proprietor Esa Misri to request payment of outstanding dues exceeding ₹72 lakh. Officials told The Hindu on Friday that these dues were current as of October 2022. On March 14, the TSWB’s Rent and Revenue section issued a final demand notice, requesting payment of dues totaling ₹72.86 lakh, which were calculated at ₹1.75 lakh per month.
When contacted, Mr. Misri stated that a significant portion of the dues were accumulated during the government-imposed lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He mentioned that the function hall had remained closed during this period. Mr. Misri also said that he issued a cheque of ₹33 lakh on Thursday as payment, and made part payments earlier this year. TSWB officials confirmed this information on Friday. However, they pointed out that the cheque had not yet been deposited.
The TSWB has been grappling with rent collection from scores of its tenants. While there was a rent revision exercise last year, during the term of former Chief Executive Officer Shahnawaz Qasim, no such exercise was carried out in 2023.
“There are several tenants who are still paying low rents of a few hundred or few thousand when there is a scope for enhancement,” said a member of staff. “For example, the tenants of the Station Bazaar Masjid properties in Nizamabad challenged in court the enhancement,” he pointed out, adding that there are about 40 tenants of the institution.
Highlights
- While rents were enhanced for around 500 properties in the past, more needs to be done given the fact that the TSWB oversees thousands of properties. Rent collection was better in 2022 as compared to this year. Rent collection from several districts are low, TSWB staff said.
- There are only 10 inspector-auditors for the 33 districts of Telangana. Each inspector-auditor handles issues pertaining to waqf land protection, liaising with mutawallis, and rent collection. Several workers are discharging duties at the TSWB as daily wage earners.
TSWB staff pointed out that a paucity of qualified staff has hit rent collection hard. For instance, there are only 10 inspector-auditors for the 33 districts of Telangana.
“Each inspector auditor has to take care waqf land protection, deal with issues of mutawallis (managers) of waqf institutions, and also collect rent. If one person, maybe with the assistance of another staff, has to handle four or five districts, it becomes burdensome,” a member of staff said. Rents collection from the waqf complexes in Kamareddy has been very poor.
