Khan said nothing much can be done and that the state government is now planning to recover rent from the government and semi-government offices for utilizing waqf properties.

Khan said the rent recovered from the government offices would be a great source of income for the Waqf Board and would be used in welfare and education projects, increasing the salaries of imams and muezzins, and renovating shrines and mosques that are under the Waqf Board.

The minister added the financial situation of the Waqf Board is pathetic, and that the financial crunch has caused further hindrance in development projects. He also said that government offices took control of the waqf land illegally a couple of years ago and that this would have not been possible without the help of officials from the Waqf Board who must have provided no-objection certificates. The encroachment of Waqf Board land is illegal, as waqf properties are only for the use of the Muslim community, he added.

In order to maintain transparency and accountability in Waqf Board, all waqf properties would be computerized and hosted on the website by the board giving the latest and updated details of the Waqf properties, Khan said.

In the past there have been grave irregularities by the Waqf Board officials, with prime properties in Mumbai being sold at peanut rates to industrialist Anil Ambani, and some properties in Aurangabad to Dilip Deshmukh, brother of former chief minister and presently federal minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, while waqf properties in Nagpur were alleged to have been siphoned off by former Minister for Minorities and Waqf Anees Ahmed.

In a mud-slinging attack Ahmed had alleged that the federal minister in league with former chief executive officer of the Waqf Board M.A. Aziz, who was also a Congress party legislator, had sold of the waqf land illegally to Dilip Deshmukh. The government then appointed a retired judge as a one-member inquiry commission to probe the selling of the waqf land in the state. The inquiry commission has yet to submit his inquiry report.

It may be recalled that the Maharashtra government had passed an amendment in 2007 to the Bombay Government Properties (Eviction Act 155), which gave the government the power to treat the waqf properties as government properties. This amendment was quietly passed in the state legislature without a protest from the Muslim community.