By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Central Wakf Council has urged the Central Government to call a national conference of all chief ministers and state ministers looking wakf departments to resolve all pending issues/disputes related to wakf properties in the country.
The 56th meeting of the Central Wakf Council held today in New Delhi to consider the matters regarding wakf properties decided to recommend for such national conference.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Mr. Salman Khurshid, Union Minister for Minority Affairs and Chairman of the Central Wakf Council, said it was decided in the meeting to request the Prime Minister to call a national level conference wherein all the Chief Ministers and State Ministers in-charge of Wakf should be invited to settle all pending issues related to Wakfs. The Centre will be urged to send letter to all the Chief Ministers in this regard as late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi did on March 26, 1976 suggesting them about a quick settlement of the disputes/encroachments on Wakf properties.
“The Council welcomed the approval of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for the establishment of three Universities in Ajmer (Rajasthan), Mysore (Karnataka) and Kishanganj (Bihar) on Wakf land on a Public-Private Partnership basis for the benefit of educationally backward among minorities,” Khurshid said adding that the concept of this new model for a Central University is being legally examined.
He also said that Council will advertise through the local newspapers in the country about ongoing survey of Wakf properties and will request public to draw the attention of the Survey Commissioners towards Wakf properties if they are ignored anywhere and inform the Central Wakf Council, if it is not taken care of by the Survey Commissioners.
Asked about the report that there is a move in Punjab to de-notify and de-mutate the Wakf properties already registered on the basis of survey done by the Punjab Government between 1961 and 1970, he said that the Central Wakf Council took stand that these properties cannot be de-notified and de-mutated now after a gap of forty years. The Chairman of Central Wakf Council would take up the matter with the Government of Punjab and also with the Union Home Ministry, he said.
The Central Wakf Council is a Statutory Body constituted by the Government of India under Wakf Act, 1995 to watch the work of the State Wakf Boards and to manage proper administration of Wakfs in the country.