New Delhi: The Lok Sabha adopted the motion to extend the term of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (amendment) bill on Thursday and to present their report at the end of the 2025 budget session instead.
JPC chairman Jagdambika Pal said that during the meeting held by the committee on Wednesday, it was decided that there are around 6 states where there is a dispute between the state government and waqf board on the ownership of properties, and looking at those disputes, it was decided to get an extension for the JPC.
"The speaker had given a mandate on JPC, but on the meeting held yesterday that since there are certain properties where there is a dispute between the state government and Waqf board, with the board claiming certain properties as theirs. There are 6 such states, we had asked for a reply from them but we haven't gotten a reply from them," he said today.
"Now we have decided to present our findings on the last day of the 2025 budget session," he said. He further said that the previous government had also decided on handing over the government properties to the Waqf board, but that decision had been stayed by the court.
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"The properties were acquired by the Britishers in 1911 after giving compensation, then in 1970's the Waqf board claimed that 123 such property is theirs, then as these problems arose when the previous (United Progressive Alliance) government had formed a cabinet just as the elections were going to be announced that they would handover the properties at the rate of Rs 1 per acre per annum.
Though the court had stayed that decision, otherwise government property worth around Rs 1 lakh crore would have belonged to Waqf. So we decided it is better to seek an extension," Pal said.
Earlier, Jagdambika Pal also said that the opposition is complaining needlessly about having too much work in the committee.
"The people should also understand that there have been repeated long meetings being held. More than 125 hours of meeting have happened. Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Gujarat, Tamil nadu, we have met with Waqf board, minority commission, government officers. So they are complaining to the speaker about continuous sittings and working on the committee, they are complaining about working that I call them 3 times a week, meetings are being held for 8 hours a day," he said.
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Criticising the Opposition, he added, "We have been given an important mandate, we are hearing everyone. Before I used to see complains of not getting work completed, but this is the first time I have heard from the opposition that they are complaining about working too much, so we have given a lot of chances to them, we listen to them only for 8 hours."
The Waqf bill is now expected to be presented on the last week of the 2025 budget session. (with Agency inputs)
