Updated: October 14, 2013 00:55 IST
Rampant encroachment and the misuse and usurpation of wakf assets
representing Islamic religious endowments is the reality across India.
Development of available properties, often in prime urban locations, has
hardly happened either. The opportunity cost is heavy: substantial
income that these could generate for the welfare of the community is
being foregone or misappropriated. A Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha
constituted in 1996 had looked into the working of State-level wakf
boards.
The Sachar Committee Report (2006) advocated a stringent
approach to countering encroachments, and related matters. A Joint
Parliamentary Committee that presented its report in October 2008 put
forth major suggestions. Four years later, the Union Ministry of
Minorities Affairs directed State wakf boards to undertake an assets
survey and computerise records. Sadly, there was no progress. With the
Wakf (Amendment) Act, 2013 now in place, the prospect of some order
evolving in the management of the more than four lakh registered wakf
property parcels has emerged.
The new Act recognises the failure to maintain even a basic record of
the assets in many States as a principal malady, and seeks to address it
within a proper time-frame. Under the amended provisions, encroachment
on wakf property has been made a cognisable and non-bailable offence
that could attract up to two years’ rigorous imprisonment. The Act puts
the onus on State governments to ensure that wakf boards are set up and
function effectively. Steps to ensure better accountability on the part
of the boards have been incorporated.
A statutory obligation to ensure
flow of information from State wakf boards and State governments to the
Central Wakf Council has been incorporated. Stricter provisions have
been provided in the amended law to reclaim property parcels alienated
over the years. The new composition of the Central Wakf Council,
including four persons with national eminence, to advise Central and
State governments and State wakf boards, is a prudent one. So is the
creation of a Board of Adjudication.
However, the wider interests of the
community, in terms of educational facilities and welfare provision for
instance, should form the cornerstone of the reform effort, and
commercial interest per se should not take precedence over them.
The creation of a centralised, web-enabled database for use by
stakeholders will improve transparency and efficiencies — and keep
vested interests at bay. The principal thrust should be on ensuring
transparency in the administration of wakf assets, and the application
of the new law should be done with this in mind.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/to-secure-wakf-wealth/article5231818.ece?homepage=true
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