Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju raises issue of Tiruchendurai village in Parliament

New Delhi [India], August 9 : Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju raised the issue of Trichy Tiruchendurai village in the Parliament, where a 1500 year old village with a predominantly Hindu population was declared a Waqf property by the Waqf Board.
Speaking in Lok Sabha on Thursday, the minister stated that the entire village has been given to the Waqf Board and the villagers are doing the deed registration temporarily from 2022 through negotiations and sought for a permanent solution to the issue.
Tiruchendurai is a village located on the Cauvery River's bank in Trichy district. Residents of Tiruchendurai in Trichy district were shocked to learn that the Waqf Board had claimed ownership of their ancestral land, including the Tiruchendurai Chandrasekhara Swamy Temple in the village, which is over 1000 years old. This issue came to limelight when a local attempted to sell his agricultural land.
The man was informed by the local authorities that his 1.2-acre plot of property belonged to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board and that to sell it, he needed to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. Following this, in 2022 revenue officials had conducted a preliminary inquiry and held a peace meeting, where representatives of the Waqf board also took part. It was decided that registration of title deeds about the village could be carried as usual until further orders.
V Chandrasekharan a resident of the village said " I was born in this village in 1936, my father and so many elders used to say that we belonged to this village for more than ten generations, to my knowledge there are no Muslims here. Since 1940 I have not seen any Muslims here. Now Waqf Board is saying that so many properties belong to them but this is not true.

"The opposition may agree because they oppose everything against the ruling government. The ruling government should come up and I am happy that the matter has come up in the parliament yesterday by the ruling government. To my knowledge the entire village belongs to Hindu and the Waqf Board has nothing to do with this" he added.
"I have been living here for the last 77 years, I was born in this house and my house is around 100 years old. My father bought this house a long time ago and this house belongs to us and the same way most of the houses in this village. Suddenly Waqf Board said that it all belonged to them. I am really surprised and worried why a step like this is taken by the Waqf Board" another villager Dr Raja said.

He further stated, "We have the temple here in our village for more than a thousand years. I am very happy that the Central government and Modiji have taken up this issue. We are thankful to Modiji".
Earlier on Thursday, the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to "effectively address" issues related to the powers of the State Waqf Boards, registration and survey of waqf properties and removal of encroachments, was introduced in Lok Sabha. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which amends the Waqf Act, of 1995, was introduced by Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
Opposition parties including the Congress, DMK, NCP, Trinamool Congress and AIMIM strongly opposed the introduction of the bill, saying its provisions were against federalism and the constitutional provisions. While some members demanded the withdrawal of the bill, many suggested that should be sent to a standing committee.