Congress MLA Hasan Maulana from Tamil Nadu has assured the people of a village in Vellore that no one will be forced to leave, even though a dargah had sent eviction notices claiming the land as Waqf property.

He also mentioned that if the Waqf Board can prove its ownership of the land with proper documents, the villagers would have to pay a small rent to use it. “Once a Waqf, always a Waqf,” Maulana said. Around 150 families in Kattukollai village, located in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, have reportedly received notices claiming that their land actually belongs to the Waqf. These notices were sent by a man named F Syed Satham, who stated that the land is owned by a nearby dargah (a Muslim religious place). India Today reviewed one of the notices sent to a resident named Balaji, accusing him of illegally occupying Waqf land listed under survey number 362. The notice said that Balaji had built a house and a shop on this land, which, according to Waqf records, belongs to the mosque.

The notice said that people living on the land must get permission, pay ground rent, and follow Waqf rules—or they could be legally removed. Syed Sadam became the caretaker of the dargah and mosque after his father passed away in 2021. He says the land has been under the Waqf Board since 1954, and they have documents to prove it. Sadam explained that his late father was not formally educated and didn’t know much about the legal process, so he never collected rent from the people living there. Now, Sadam wants to fix that by starting to collect rent from the residents. He said that two more notices will be sent, and if there’s still no reply, the issue will be taken to the High Court. But the residents say they’ve been living on the land for four generations and see it as their own. They’re upset because Sadam is now asking for rent, while his father never did.

The issue came into the spotlight when worried villagers gathered at the District Collector’s office, fearing they might be forced to leave their homes. Praveen Kumar, the Divisional Secretary of the Hindu Munnani, said that all 150 families had received similar eviction notices, even though they have government-issued documents and regularly pay panchayat taxes. He requested the Collector to officially grant land ownership (patta) to the villagers, who are stressed about losing their homes and way of life. Residents said that the Vellore District Collector has informally told them not to pay rent for now. This is the second village in Tamil Nadu to be claimed under the Waqf law. Earlier, the village of Tiruchendurai had also received similar notices stating that the land belonged to the Waqf Board.