On Monday, a number of opposition leaders stormed out of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 because they said the Delhi Waqf Board gave a different presentation than what was authorized.
These MPs accompanied the walkout, including AAP’s Sanjay Singh, DMK’s Mohammed Abdulla, Congress’s Naseer Hussain and Mohamed Jawed. Opposition members complained of dissatisfaction after claiming that MCD Commissioner and administrator of the Delhi Waqf Board Ashwini Kumar requested the report without informing Atishi, Delhi’s Chief Minister, or the local authorities.
A meeting was held under the presidency of BJP MP Jagdambika Pal to decide how different Waqf boards and organizations involved in this issue approach the changes. Officials of Waqf boards of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttrakhand were called where from were also included in the Call for justice led by trustee Chander Wadhwa, committee members of Waqf Tenant Welfare Association, and Harbans Dunkal, President of the Residents Welfare Association of B.K. Dutt colony New Delhi.
These groups were to offer their evidence, comment, or recommend directly on the legislation that aims at increasing transparency, auditing, and legal repression of the illegally occupied Waqf properties.
Some issues have been sensitive in the JPC discussions on this bill, including the incident at the previous meeting on October 22 when two members, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, almost clashed. Banerjee was also said to have thrown a glass bottle in the course of the scuffle and cut his own hand in the process; he was later suspended from attending one session.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 intends to allow record-making and record-keeping through digital ways and an enhanced audit regime to reclaim the properties of the Waqf that have been encroached upon by unauthorized persons. Indeed, this legislation has apparently changed the pattern of governance and responsibility of Waqf properties; however, opposition protests have given rise to certain questions.
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