Hyderabad, July 20: Telangana Wakf Board chairman Syed Azmatullah Hussaini has constituted a 12-member committee for maintenance of Anees-ul-Ghurba and for restoring its earlier status. He has also reinstated the employees who were looking after the institution in the past.
The Wakf Board chairman took the decision amid a row over the handing over of Anees-ul-Ghurba, the oldest orphanage in Hyderabad, to Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS), which is a state government body.
The Wakf Board is likely to take a decision to shift the residential school of TMREIS from the building to restore the status of Anees-ul-Ghurba.
Like in the past, the institute will take care of orphans under the supervision of the Wakf Board.
At the time of demolition of the old building of Anees-ul-Ghurba, there were 120 orphan children.
Azmatullah Hussaini has said that orphans will get priority in the new building. He assured that proper arrangements will be made for their accommodation. He said the children will be provided education either at the same premises or outside.
Wakf Board’s executive officer Mir Munawar Ali has been appointed in-charge of Anees-ul-Ghurba.
Various social, political and religious organisations last week came together to launch a movement for protection of Anees-ul-Ghurba. It vowed to fight for protecting the identity of the Wakf institution and restore its past glory. The organisations have decided to approach the High Court.
Anees-ul-Ghurba was founded by philanthropist Mir Khaja Badruddin Chishti in 1921. It was governed by the Asaf Jahi dynasty’s ecclesiastical division. After the merger of Hyderabad State into the Union of India, it was handed over to the Endowment Department.
Later, in 2009 the state government issued an order instructing the transfer of its possession to the Waqf Board. The Waqf Board demolished the dilapidated orphanage to make way for a new building.
The reconstruction works of the oldest orphanage in the city began in 2017 and the project was completed last year at a cost of Rs.20 crore.
Leaders of ruling Congress and BRS have been blaming each other for handing over the new building to TMREIS.
While BRS leaders including former chairman of Telangana Wakf Board Masiullah Khan has alleged that Wakf Board handed over Anees-ul-Ghurba building to TMREIS for a very low rent, present Wakf Board Chairman Syed Azmathullah Hussaini stated that it was under the previous BRS government that the building was rented to TMREIS.
Azmatullah Hussaini claimed that the Wakf Board meeting, chaired by then chairman Masiullah Khan on September 27, 2023, decided to give the entire building comprising 1.45 lakh square feet on rent to TMREIS at Rs.5 per square feet.
