The Waqf Board is claiming at least 53 historical monuments across Karnataka.
This includes the famous Gol Gumbaz, Ibrahim Rauza, Bara Kaman in Vijayapura, the forts at Bidar and Kalaburagi.
Of these, 43 in Vijayapura, former capital city of Adil Shahis, have already been declared Waqf properties by the Waqf Board in 2005, with many of them encroached upon and subjected to senseless alterations.
“While ASI is the holder of the land/monument, the encumbrance is the Waqf authority. This has been done without consulting ASI,” says an RTI response from the Central government.
As per documents these protected monuments were declared Waqf properties in 2005 by the Health and Family Welfare Department (Medical Education) Principal Secretary Mohammad Mohsin, who then held the position of both deputy commissioner and chairman of the Waqf Board, Vijayapura.
He said that the declaration of Waqf properties is done as per the government gazette notification issued by the Revenue Department and authentic documentary evidence produced by the parties.
Most of them were notified as monuments of national importance by the then British government on November 12, 1914.
According to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains (AMASR) Act and Rules of 1958, ASI is the only owner for maintaining, renovating and conservation of these properties.
Officials say once an ASI property, it is always an ASI property as there are no provisions to denotify them.
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