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The members of the newly formed Central Wakf Council in its 47th meeting suggested to form a Wakf Development Corporation to harness and utilize the resources for development of Wakf properties. They stressed on need of such an institutional mechanism to make best use of Wakf properties. The meeting was inaugurated by the Chairperson of the Council, Mrs. Meira Kumar, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The Minister stressed on streamlining audit of the income and expenditure of the individual wakfs to ensures proper utilisation of the income of their properties. She informed that the Council receives a statutory contribution at the rate of one per cent of the net annual income of the Wakfs registered with 28 Wakf Boards. During the year 2004-05, more than Rs. 1 crore has been collected for Council.
Mrs. Kumar said since its inception in 1965, during its 40 years of existence, one of its outstanding contributions is the establishment of Maulana Azad Education Foundation which plays an important role in the educational upliftment of minorities in the country. She said, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and Council have been in constant touch with the States to take suitable measures for the removal of encroachment and make necessary amendments in the State laws for speedy recovery of these properties. One of the suggestions has been to bring the Wakf properties under the purview of Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Acts of the States. Karnataka and Rajasthan have already done it and some of the States are considering to do so. Similarly, some of the States have exempted the Wakf properties from the purview of their Rent Control Acts or have provided some relief in this regard. ‘We hope, other States would also consider it as it would help increase the income of the Wakfs’, she said.
The Minister informed that Ministry provides yearly grant-in-aid to the Council for the development of urban Wakf properties. With this grant-in-aid the Council has been able to get 118 projects completed such as shopping complexes, marriage halls, hospitals and hostels and work on more than 50 projects is in progress. She congratulated the members and invited their cooperation to make the Council more active. She asked them to evolve new strategies, fix priorities and advise the Government to accelerate the activities of the Wakf units.
The members suggested that steps should be taken to vacate the Wakf property encroachments and form a panel to look into the problems of State Wakf Boards. They advised to energize State Wakf Tribunals which were set up to alleviate the miseries of the people and to monitor the work of State Boards to streamline their activities. They desired that the Council should be empowered to act effectively.
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