By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The situation of wakf properties across the country has got worse over the years. According to the Sachar committee report, wakf boards across India have land holdings of more than 6 lakh acres with the market value of more than 1.2 lakh crore; but wakf manages to generate just 163 crore, meager in comparison to its potential earning more than 12, 000 crore. There is immense amount of corruption in wakf boards because of which its properties suffer from encroachment.
According to the report, the malady lies in “bad laws and maladministration.” To correct this mess and for the better management of the state wakf boards and Central Wakf Council, the report recommended formation of a dedicated wakf cadre of officers on the line of civil services, called as “Indian Wakf Service.” Terming the recommendation as “neither legally feasible nor desirable” the deputy secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MMA) rejected the recommendation of the PM’s high powered committee in just three lines.
Fatehpuri Masjid near Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, is a Wakf property which is now encroached upon
Lame excuse of Govt.
But Justice Sachar who headed the Sachar Committee rejected the lame excuse given by the MMA. According to him there is no legal hurdle in creating the Indian Wakf Service. Article 312 of the Constitution provides that Parliament may by law provide for the creation of one or more all-India services common to the Union and the states
What makes the lethargy and insincerity of the MMA most prominent is the fact that the MMA authorities never discussed the recommendation by the Sachar Committee before out rightly rejecting it.
Rejection without discussion
“The MMA didn’t discuss the merits of the much needed recommendation and rejected it apparently without any reason,” said Zafar Mahmood head of Zakat Foundation of India, who found this out through an application filed under the RTI Act as to why the recommendation was rejected by the MMA.
“We found that a deputy secretary with the ministry had struck down the recommendation for an Indian Wakf Service in three sentences,” Mr. Mahmood said.
Deputy Secretary, MMA Virendra Singh remarked in the noting, a copy of which is with TwoCircles.net: “The state wakf board has the autonomy to decide the number of personnel, their deployment status or pay. The state boards do not have a defined relationship with the CWC (Central Wakf Council) unlike the position between the states and the central government and, therefore, replication of an all-India cadre on the lines of the AIS is not practicable. Amendment to the Wakf Act to induce the envisaged centralization may neither be legally feasible nor desirable.”
Mr. Mahmood said a subsequent Cabinet note had only four words: “This is not recommended.” “Obviously, it was not felt necessary at any higher level to hold any discussion,” he said.
IV grade employee CEO of state wakf board
Mr. Zafar Mahmood who was also officer on special duty with the Sachar Committee said that “most of the 27 the state wakf boards are headed by either incompetent people or those who are low level government officers, as low as forth grade employee who, in fact won’t be allowed to sit in front of any secretary level officer in the government. This kind of situation ensures that they won’t ever be in a position to deal with the government or get things done and thereby facilitate a better management of the state wakf boards”
“The gravity of the situation can be accessed from the fact that the head of state wakf boards in Puducherry is just matriculate while that of Andaman and Nikobar is a higher secondary pass,” added Mr. Mahmood.
Mr. Mahmood further added that in other cases the charge of the state wakf board is with the government servants on additional basis which actually means that s/he don’t have to work
The Sachar Committee had noted in its recommendation that, “there is a strong case to create a new cadre of officers to manage the affairs of State Wakf Boards and Central Wakf Council. It is estimated that up to 200 Group-A officers are needed to service Wakf affairs across India. The government may therefore consider creating a new cadre of officers to be recruited by the UPSC so that they can deal with the specific affairs of the wakf efficiently.”
The recommendation wanted these officers to have “the knowledge of Islamic law and Urdu as most documents relating to Wakf are in that language.”