Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala State Waqf Board chairman K S Hamza on Tuesday clarified that the registration of the disputed Munambam land on the Centre's UMEED portal was only part of a technical and legal procedure and would not determine the final ownership of the property.
Addressing reporters here, Hamza said the registration was carried out as part of a mandatory legal process and obligation that had to be completed before May 17 and asserted that any final decision regarding ownership would be subject to government and court decisions.
"Even if a property is registered on the UMEED portal, ownership rights will be decided only according to the final decision of the government and the courts," he said.
Hamza said the Waqf Board has no hostility towards the residents of Munambam and only sympathised with them.
"Many technicalities exist in the country, and such issues should be resolved through legal means," he said.
Alleging that the Munambam landholders had been "cheated", Hamza claimed that certain individuals, including an advocate and the management of Farook College, had misled residents into purchasing land which allegedly did not carry valid sale rights.
"They were trapped after being told that the land had sale rights, though it did not have proper ownership transfer rights under Waqf provisions," he alleged.
Hamza further claimed that the Munambam land had been registered as Waqf property in 2019 during the tenure of a UDF-backed Waqf Board.
"Nearly 59,000 Waqf properties in Kerala have been registered on the UMEED portal. Munambam was one among them. But this is not a final document and remains subject to all decisions taken by the government and the courts," he said.
At the same time, he said the residents deserved justice, but they should have examined the original land documents carefully before purchasing the properties.
The remarks came amid mounting political controversy over the Munambam land dispute after Hamza had earlier stated that the disputed land was Waqf property and had accordingly been included in the UMEED portal along with other Waqf assets in the state.
The issue triggered protests from residents of Munambam, following which Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Monday assured that no affected residents would be evicted from their homes.
"We have decided that these victims will not be evicted from their places. They will be protected. They will get their land. We will fight for that till the very end," Satheesan had told reporters.
The chief minister had also alleged that the previous LDF government indirectly aided attempts to create communal divisions by supporting the Waqf Board's claim over the disputed land.
The Munambam dispute has emerged as a politically sensitive issue in Kerala, with several residents expressing concern over the ownership status of their land.
The BJP has extended support to the protesting residents and claimed that the amended Waqf Act would help address their concerns.
Church-run Malayalam daily 'Deepika', in an editorial published on Monday, strongly criticised the Kerala State Waqf Board for registering the disputed land on the UMEED portal and demanded that the notification be withdrawn.
The newspaper also urged immediate intervention by the Congress-led UDF government, recalling Satheesan's earlier claim that the Munambam issue could be resolved within "10 minutes" if his party came to power.