New Delhi, Jan 24: Jagdambika Pal, the Chairperson of the joint parliamentary committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, has said there was nothing to fear about the Bill and no religious place will be snatched from anyone.

He said this while speaking with IANS on Friday ahead of meeting some delegations, including one from Kashmir.

The JPC Chairman allayed the fears of the Muslim community regarding the Bill. He said there are rumours that they will lose their religious places. He said the Waqf Board is not a religious body.

Jagdambika Pal said, "The misuse of Waqf properties has led to the matter being referred to the JPC committee...It is a rumour that the Waqf Board is a religious body. The Waqf Board is a statutory body that administers Waqf properties... However, complaints have arisen about the misuse of Waqf properties and how they are being mismanaged."

He said the proposed law aims to ensure that these properties are used properly for the benefit of the poor, society, and Muslims. It is a rumour that the new law will snatch everything... it will take away mosques.. imambaras, etc It is only rumours.. like Zakir Naik said send one crore emails to stop it .. It is not done this way.. we have a Constitution. The government is run by the constitution... the government is constitutionally formed and has a mandate.. if the government has proposed an amendment, the JPC is considering it. So I can say surely that these are rumours only.."

The JPC team has visited many states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. and collected views.

He said that they could not visit Jammu and Kashmir. "We couldn't visit Jammu and Kashmir...Their delegation is headed by Mirwaiz .. and he said he wanted to meet us. Today we have asked him to appear and there are other delegations also. We will be taking their views and then on January 27 the clause-wise discussion will take place."

On Friday, Kashmir’s chief cleric and Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will meet Jagdambika Pal on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs gave its nod to the meeting.

He also said that the JPC has rescheduled its clause-by-clause discussion on the proposed amendments to January 27. Earlier, it was scheduled for January 24-25, a communique from the Lok Sabha secretariat had said. Speculations were rife that meetings were expected to set the stage for the tabling of the final report during the Budget session of the Parliament.

Two months after the Lok Sabha passed a resolution to extend the tenure of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, the panel is believed to be set to submit its 500-page report in the forthcoming Budget Session. So far, the committee has held 34 meetings in Delhi besides visits to several states where over 24 stakeholders were called. Over 20 waqf boards from across the country have appeared before the committee.

The Centre had referred the Bill to the committee for further scrutiny following objections from the Opposition. Of the committee’s 21 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members, 13 are from Opposition parties – nine in the Lower House and four in the Upper House.

--IANS

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