The government of Uttar Pradesh has informed the Joint Parliamentary Committee that 78% of the land in UP that the state Waqf Board is claiming own actually belongs to the government and the Waqf Board has no legal ownership rights on it.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill conducted its last meeting of field visits on Tuesday in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of JPC chief MP Jagdambika Pal. All the stakeholders including members of Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards and the Minority Commission participated in the meeting.
As per reports, Monika Garg, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Minority Welfare Commission of the UP government, told the JPC that the Waqf Board claims to have 14 thousand hectares of land in the state. But 11.7 thousand hectares of it belong to the government as per official records. The Sachar Committee report earlier had also said that 60 properties that the Waqf Board is claiming belong to the government.
The revenue department informed the JPC that a large portion of the land properties that the Waqf Board is claiming to be its own is registered under class 5 and class 6 in the revenue records. Class 5 and 6 mentions are for government properties and Gram Sabha properties.
As per reports, the Waqf Board in UP is claiming the ownership of over 1.3 lakh different properties, these include ASI monuments, Balrampur Government Hospital, LDA lands and many more such areas that belong to the government.
Additionally some properties of LDA and Residence Development department that the Waqf Board is claiming as its own were officially allocated to the respective departments from the respective city municipalities.
The UP government informed the JPC that the State has guidelines and rules in place for marking Waqf Properties. When the Waqf Board claims the ownership of a land, the said land’s official records are tallied and ownership details as per 1952 records are matched. If these details are verified and the land is officially found to be owned by the Waqf Board, the board can request the government to remove encroachments on that land.
The UP government also informed the JPC that Lucknow’s famous monuments Bada Imamwada, Chhota Imamwada and The Begum ka Maqbara in Ayodhya are all government properties, but the Waqf Board is wrongfully claiming the ownership of these protected monuments.
MP Jagdambika Pal informed that the JPC will submit its report on 31 January in the next Parliament Session. “The JPC has been meeting continuously for the last 6 months, holding meetings across the country. I am confident that we will all come to a consensus and present our report. Last time we had to present it in the winter session but it was extended, so we are going to present this report in the budget session,” Pal added.
The Waqf Act of 1995, enacted to regulate Waqf properties, has long been criticised for issues such as mismanagement, corruption, and encroachments.
Notably, the budget session of Parliament will commence on January 31 and continue till April 4, with the union budget to be presented on February 1.
Details of the Waqf Act 1995 and how it came to be can be read here.
(With inputs from ANI)