HYDERABAD: Reiterating the government’s commitment to provide 4 per cent reservation in education and employment to Muslims in the state, chief minister K Rosaiah said on Tuesday that the government had decided to move the Supreme Court against the High Court order quashing the GO.

Talking to media after a review meeting with the advocate general and other senior officials, including the chief secretary, he said the attorney general was requested to take up the case in the apex court. The government would also hire other legal experts to defend its stand on the reservations for Muslims.

Rosaiah said that the government would ensure that interests of Muslim students who got admissions in various colleges so far were protected. Asked if the government lost the case in the high court because of its failure to prepare a watertight

Muslim reservation policy, Rosaiah refused to comment and said, “I will not comment on the verdict of the high court.” He also refused to answer when asked if the state government proposed to go in for a constitutional amendment to implement the reservations.  

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HYDERABAD: The shifting of two women’s ODI matches between India and England to Visakhapatnam and Bangalore, scheduled to be held here this month end, has cast doubts over the four IPL-3 matches slated for next month.

The opening ceremony of the third edition has already been moved to Mumbai after Telangana protests disrupted the local Deccan Twenty20 tourney last month. It is now learnt that the governing council of the IPL is contemplating relocation of the four matches of local franchise Deccan Chargers out of the city because of the continuing Telangana unrest.

N Shivlal Yadav, vice-president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), said it was the decision of BCCI to shift the two women’s matches.

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HYDERABAD: In a confirmation of what has long been suspected, the state government’s second survey of Wakf Board properties has established that in the past 50 years almost 40% of land has been encroached upon by politicians and realtors. Many of these encroacher politicians were either part of the Wakf Board or were having key influence on the board.

The first survey between 1958 and 1965 showed the Board possessed 1.33 lakh acres across the state. “But the second survey (begun in 2001 and completed in Jan. 2010) in all 23 districts has revealed almost 55,000 acres or 40% of land has been encroached upon by politicians and their accomplices,” a top Wakf Board official told TOI.

The report submitted to the Wakf Board through the government by survey commissioner Mohammed Miah shows that almost 60% of wakf land in Hyderabad and 55% in Ranga Reddy are no longer with the board. “In Hyderabad, the land encroached upon is mostly in the Old City. The other districts with major encroachments are Guntur, Kurnool, Medak and Visakhapatnam,” the official said.

Wakf means setting aside property for causes which could either be religious — like taking care of a mosque — or social — like helping widows or orphans. The income from wakf property cannot be used for any purpose other than specified by the ‘wakif’ or endower. And it’s the Wakf Board that acts as custodian of land donated by the well-to-do from the community.

Despite encroachments, the second survey showed that the land under the board’s has risen to 1.67 lakh acres from 1.33 lakh acres in the first survey. But there’s a catch. “The second survey has come up with more properties because it gave more attention to the identification process. But most new properties identified lack reconciliation with the revenue records,” said a wakf official.

The second survey also listed the modus operandi of encroachers. “They tamper with land records and get it registered in their name or as benamis. Not only revenue officials but Board inspectors are also involved,” the official said.

The Wakf Board’s last chairman was former senior cop Ilyas Saith who was the late CM YSR’s nominee. Saith eventually resigned, allegedly due to political interference. At one point, a source said, Saith was threatened by an MLA from Guntur who barged into his chamber with a posse of cronies and sought changes in the Wakf committee in Krishna district.

Saith was even abused by a minister from the district, the source said. Saith finally quit after the powers that be failed to act on his complaint.

The board remains headless since.

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A teacher on Tuesday slit the throat of a 10-year-old boy, whose father had taken a loan from him, police said.

The incident took place in Hanamkonda in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. 

Police said Nagaraju, teacher in a local school, allegedly attacked the boy with a knife at the latter's house in Vikas Nagar area of the town. The injured boy is battling for life at MGM Hospital in Warangal. 

The boy's mother Meena Kumari told police that Nagaraju had come home to demand the money he had lent to her husband Ailaiah, a watchman. Since Ailaiah was away she asked him to come later. However, the teacher requested for a glass of water. As she entered the kitchen, he allegedly attacked her son with a knife and ran away. 

Police said they were conducting a probe and were on the lookout for Nagaraju.

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