Author: Mohammed Wajihuddin
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 6, 2011
URL: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-06/mumbai/29625404_1_waqf-boards-waqf-properties-central-waqf-council
Introduction: Activists allege that the waqt (Amendment) Bill has kept the
doors open for land mafia to grab Waqf properties
Several NGOs and Muslim organizations have
demanded a review of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and threatened a nation-wide
agitation. The Lok Sabha unanimously passed the Bill on May 7, 2010 and it
is currently before the select committee of the Rajya Sabha before the upper
house passes it soon and it becomes an Act. The bill aims to prevent corruption
in Waqf boards and protect Waqf properties.
The Zakat Foundation of India, one of the
leading NGOs campaigning against the proposed Bill, has compiled a booklet
which concludes that "vital recommendations of the Sachar Committee and
the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Waqfs have either not been included
in the Bill or partially incorporated." The Sachar Committee (PM's high
level committee to report on social, educational, economic and educational
status of Muslims) submitted its report to the PM on November 17, 2006 while
JPC on Waqfs, appointed in 2006, submitted its report in February 2008.
Muslim NGOs allege that the Bill, by ignoring
these recommendations, has kept the doors open for land mafia to grab Waqf
properties. "If the Bill's loopholes are not plugged, it will prove disastrous
for the Muslim community who will not be able to protect the Waqf properties,"
says Zafar Mahmood, president, Zakat Foundation of India.
The JPC said that surveys of all the Waqf
properties be made compulsory, but the Bill has made it optional. The Sachar
Commmittee recommended that the secretary of the Central Waqf Council (CWC)
be of the level of joint secretary to the government for effective communication
and interaction with the authorities. The Sachar committee had also recommended
that since there were not many senior Muslim officers to be appointed the
CEOs of Waqf boards in different states, a new cadre called the Indian Waqf
Service be created. But a deputy secretary in the Union Minority Affairs ministry
vetoed it, ignoring the suggestions of the Sachar committee. An RTI query
showed that the Maharashtra government, between 2001 and 2010, sold 130 Waqf
properties worth crores, including an orphanage where a leading businessman
has now built a mansion.
"The Bill, if not reviewed, will encourage
the land sharks. We will be forced to come on the streets if the vital recommendations
of JPC and Sachar are not included in the Bill," says Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind
leader Mahmood Madni.
