The West Bengal Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department has ordered all district magistrates to start the process of uploading records of Waqf properties to the UMID portal of the Centre, signifying a huge data digitisation effort that is required by the Union government. There is a very serious deadline of December 6 till which states are required to post information on all undisputed Waqf properties, and the Bengal administration opened mass, real-time data-entry initiatives in the districts in response.
According to a senior official, there were four main instructions in the communication that was being dispatched to the district magistrates. They have been told to meet with the imams, muezzins and madrasa teachers and explain them, the technicalities of the portal-based registration. Districts have been advised also to post and publish only uncontested Waqf properties as well as to make sure that no contested land was included in the first phase of digitisation.
To facilitate the process, all districts should establish the facilitation centres to support the mutawallis and stakeholders who require technical assistance. The officials stressed that the work process should not be postponed as the Centre has a very limited schedule.
In earlier years this year, the Union government changed some provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995, which is the subject of current scrutiny of the Supreme Court. But, a state official added that there is no stay on the amendments so the West Bengal are legally required to do what it was told and finish the required data upload within the given time.
According to the new regulations, mutawallis of 8,063 Waqf properties in West Bengal have to enter all the property details on the UMID portal by December 6. This has not stopped the concerns of mutawallis in various districts over the lack of support by the State Waqf Board after the amendments.
Accepting these problems, one of the highest officials of the state acknowledged that the administration had no other variant but to act fast because it is a mandatory compliance.
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