Bengaluru:  At a separate meeting held yesterday, Minister Shashikala Jolle asked her Department officers to speedily dispose of encroachment cases of Wakf properties.

She said that in Karnataka, 1,05,885 acres of land is owned by Wakf and of that, 32,192 properties have been registered and 8,480 acres have been encroached and several cases are pending before the court of law. She directed the officers to take steps to speedily resolve encroachment cases.

“I have not yet read the report prepared on Wakf property encroachments by Anwar Manippady. Concrete steps will be taken to recover the encroached properties,” she later told reporters after the meeting.

Gazette notification has been issued for all Wakf properties in 149 Taluks and there are 355 staff working in the Wakf Department with 84 vacant posts. The Minister said that there is a government grant of Rs. 105 crore in Wakf Committee and loans are disbursed to poor Muslim families which is lesser by 5 percent.

Women from the community who are suffering from heart ailments and cancer are given a grant of Rs. 1 lakh for treatment. This time, Wakf has got a grant of Rs. 1.74 crore, she added.