Waqf Bill: Fourth meeting of JPC on Waqf Amendment Bill, know what happened? | News India

The government has formed a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to discuss the Waqf Amendment Bill, whose fourth meeting was held on Friday. Many issues were discussed in this meeting. There was also a heated debate between Asaduddin Owaisi and BJP members.

The fourth meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Group on Waqf Board was held on Friday, which lasted for about 9 hours. There was a lot of uproar in the Waqf meeting. During this meeting, there was a heated argument between Asaduddin Owaisi and BJP members. In front of the committee, Culture Ministry Secretary Arunesh Chawla and ASI DG Yudhvir Singh Rawat supported the bill and called it a necessary step.

These issues were discussed in the Waqf meeting

• There was discussion that the next meeting of JPC would be called from 17 to 20 September, but no final decision could be taken, notification regarding the date of the next meeting will be issued to the committee.
• By Friday evening, the committee had received more than 13 lakh 50 thousand emails with suggestions.
• On behalf of the Ministry of Culture, the Department of Archaeology presented details of disputes with Waqf over 53 properties in 5 states.
• The 5 states whose details of 53 disputed sites were given by ASI before the committee include Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• ASI has sought some time to provide details of disputed properties in other states of the country before the committee.
• These are 53 disputed sites, which are protected by the Archaeological Department on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, while the ownership rights over them are claimed by the Waqf, which is disputed at many places.
• The list of disputed properties includes Atla Masjid in Jaunpur, UP, Kotla in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra and Mecca Masjid, Sallar Tombs in Bahraich in UP.
• ASI has expressed concern before the committee that no protected monument of national importance should violate the norms of ASI under the rights granted by Waqf. Where many such cases keep coming up every day, where someone starts running a madrasa, someone starts offering namaz, and at many places attempts are made to do photography and painting.
• The ASI cited before the committee an instance of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in which it stated how the Jabalpur High Court had rejected the Waqf Board's claim over the Burhanpur monuments.
• The Madhya Pradesh High Court has quashed the order of the Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board claiming rights over some major historical monuments, including the tombs of Shah Shuja and Nadir Shah in Burhanpur district.
• In fact, in an order dated July 19, 2013, the Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board had declared the tomb of Shah Shuja, the tomb of Nadir Shah, the Bibi Saheb Mosque and a palace located in the Burhanpur fort as its property.
• On Friday, a total of 7 people from Zakat Foundation came to present their side before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill. Former IAS Najeeb Jung and Syed Zafar Mahmood, Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah, Irfan Beg and Udit Raj appeared before the committee.
• According to sources, in a meeting organised by Zakat Foundation, former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung said that due to the activities of the central government in the last 10 years, the faith of Muslims in the country has weakened. Najeeb Jung also said that if somehow this Waqf bill comes from somewhere, then Muslims will lose faith in the system.
• However, Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairman Jagadambika Pal supported the central government and said that this amendment bill is being done not to reduce the confidence of minorities but to increase their confidence. Pal also said that passing the bill will give strength to women of the Muslim community, Bohras and backward Muslims.
• After the Zakat Foundation presented its views, the committee called a total of 9 people from the Telangana Wakf Board to a meeting and asked them to present their views. The chairman and CEO of the Telangana Wakf Board presented their views strongly.
• There was a lot of uproar in the Waqf meeting on Friday. During this, there was a heated debate between Owaisi and BJP members. During the meeting, BJP members raised the issue that there is no mention of Waqf in the Quran and a BJP MP also said that Waqf is a non-Islamic institution.
• The MPs of these opposition parties strongly opposed the inclusion of a collector and a non-Muslim member in the Waqf Tribunal. Leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi, Sanjay Singh, Imran Masood and Kalyan Banerjee were present from the opposition side who opposed the Waqf Bill. During this time, BJP MP Dilip Saikia was also among those who argued in favor of the government.

The committee consists of 31 members

The government had constituted a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on August 9 for the Waqf Amendment Bill. So far, three meetings of the JPC have been held and its fourth meeting was held on Friday. The JPC comprises 21 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 members of the Rajya Sabha.