"Ministry of law has given its final shape to it (the draft Bill for amending the Act). When it comes to us, we will take introduce it in the next session of the Parliament," said minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
A Bill seeking to streamline the functioning of Wakf Boards across the country by amending the Wakf Act, 1995 is in its final leg of preparation.
"Ministry of law has given its final shape to it (the draft Bill for amending the Act). When it comes to us, we will take introduce it in the next session of the Parliament," said minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
Khrushid was talking to reporters after holding a meeting of the Central Wakf Council in which a host of issues related to minority welfare and reforms of the board were discussed. The council also gave its approval to the government for the amendment.
The minister said the introduction of the Bill would give more teeth to Central Wakf Council, which is supposed to act as an intermediary body between the union government and Wakf Boards in various states. There are 29 state Wakf Boards in the country that take care of public properties of minority community including madrasas and mosques.
This is being done on the recommendations of a joint parliamentary committee to streamline Wakf administration and is in line with the measures suggested by sachar committee on minorities.
Underlining the need for reforms, the minister said that the supervision, monitoring and control of Wakf across the country has been found wanting and many cases of misuse, wrong sale of Wakf properties and encroachment of land used by the Board and its properties were reported in the past.
Khrushid said that the government has decided to give monetary aid and grants to many Wakf Boards, whose financial condition is not promising. "Since financial condition of many Wakf Boards is not very promising, we have also stepped in to give small aid and grants from central government but for this the boards will have to accept certain conditions regarding their management," he said.
In the meeting held today issues like appointment of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in these Boards and to bring all Wakf properties under Public Premises Act were discussed. It also dwelt at length on the issue of computerisation of data management in all State Wakf Boards.
A suggestion of giving an annual grant of around Rs5 crore to the Central Wakf Council to carry out its increased responsibilities in wake of the proposed reforms, was also discussed in the meeting.
The status of the joint survey by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Wakf Boards on its existing properties under ASI management also came up for discussion in the meeting. The joint survey is being carried out after conflicting claims were made by ASI and various Wakf Boards regarding the number of such properties.
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