Prominent Christian organizations like the Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala and the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council have complained to the Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted regarding the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 and requested to resolve the matter.
More than 600 Christian families in Ernakulam district of Kerala have complained to the parliamentary committee against the Waqf Board. These families allege that the Waqf Board is claiming their land as its property. These families are in danger of being evicted from their land. Prominent Christian organizations like the Syro-Malabar Church and the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council have complained to the Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted regarding the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 and requested to resolve the matter.
In fact, around 610 families in Cherai, a fishing village in Kochi, are living in fear that the Waqf Board may evict them from their properties because the Board is claiming their properties as its own. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, while sharing the letters written by the Syro-Malabar Church and KCBC on Twitter, has assured that their grievances will be addressed.
Rijiju wrote on September 28, “The issue of Waqf land is affecting people of various communities. I am saddened to see that eminent Christian leaders have to express their anguish in this way. I assure them that Their complaints will be resolved.” He has also expressed confidence in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
In their memorandum to the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the two church organizations have expressed concern about the Waqf Board “illegally” claiming properties of Christian families in Cherai and Munambam areas of Ernakulam district in Kerala. Archbishop Andrews Thajath, chairman of the Syro-Malabar Public Affairs Commission, said in a letter to the JPC on September 10 that several properties in Ernakulam district that have belonged to Christian families in the region for generations were illegally claimed by the Waqf Board. This has led to legal battles and displacement of the rightful owners.
The Archbishop wrote that more than 600 families are going through this pain and fear every day. He urged the JPC to consider the plight of people in these areas and many other parts across the country who are in danger of losing their homes in view of the illegal claims made by the Waqf Board. In another similar request, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) Chairman Cardinal Basilios Clemis has also raised concerns about the illegal claims of the Waqf Board on the properties of over 600 families in Munambam Beach, Ernakulam.
The India Today report quoted the complainants as saying that the land was purchased by Siddiqui Sait in 1902 and was later donated to Feroke College in 1950. The long-running dispute between the fishermen and the college was resolved in 1975, when the High Court ruled in favor of the college. After this, local people started purchasing land from the college from 1989. But in 2022, the village office suddenly claimed that the land belonged to the Waqf Board and banned the sale or mortgage of the property.