Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India]: Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Wednesday claimed that the people in Waqf Board are not satisfied, adding that a proposal will be presented in the coming Parliamentary session to further postpone the Waqf Amendment Bill, in case the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) did not reach any conclusion.
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said, “The people in Waqf Board are not satisfied. Opposition members in the parliamentary committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill met the Lok Sabha Speaker. Only the members and report of the committee can tell if any conclusion was drawn out of the meeting or not…If they will not reach any conclusion then a proposal will be presented in the coming Parliamentary session and the Bill will be postponed.”
This came after opposition MPs in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday regarding their issues.
After coming out of the meeting, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said that the Speaker had assured them that he would look into their “grievances.”
“When we come (in the JPC meeting) the BJP leaders don’t come. If we won’t be there the quorum will not be fulfilled. We are serious and sincere. Many such issues are there that we have raised to the Speaker. It was a very nice discussion. The Speaker has very patiently heard us and has said that he will look into the grievances which we have pointed out there. He was very kind to us,” Banerjee told.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh emphasized that they have put forth their views with the Lok Sabha Speaker.
“Whatever our views are; we have discussed them with the Speaker. These things cannot be said in public because there is a limit to the committee and the Speaker. Whatever our problem was, we have put it before him and he has assured us to take a decision after carefully considering it,” Singh said.
Notably, the Waqf Act, of 1995, which was created to regulate waqf properties, has long faced allegations of mismanagement, corruption and encroachments.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 seeks to bring sweeping reforms, introducing digitisation, stricter audits, transparency and legal mechanisms to reclaim illegally occupied properties.
The JPC is holding a series of meetings to gather input from government officials, legal experts, Waqf Board members and community representatives from different states and Union Territories, aiming for the most comprehensive reform possible.