8 months ago
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Nearly 4 months aft the Centre launched UMEED portal – a centralised integer level for real-time uploading, verification, and monitoring of Waqf properties – lone astir 4,000 properties person been registered truthful acold compared to the full 8.72 lakh Waqf establishments dispersed crossed 30 States/UTs, covering much than 38 lakh acres of land.
While Waqf Board officials from respective States person complained astir ineligible and method issues connected the portal, an authoritative from the Ministry of Minority Affairs attributed the sluggish registrations to the lack of “fool-proof records”, making it ‘impossible’ to capable the required information earlier the six-month registration deadline successful December.
In States specified arsenic Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra, Waqf officials said the portal throws up errors astatine each signifier of registration — from missing city, country oregon ward names to repeated admin login failures. The deficiency of an ‘auto-save’ diagnostic has besides slowed progress, forcing users to restart the full process each clip they log in.
A Waqf authoritative from Uttar Pradesh alleged that the strategy demanded aged gross records, which adjacent the Revenue Department officials are incapable to find, fixed that immoderate are implicit a century-old. U.P. has implicit 2.3 lakh properties nether Shia and Sunni Waqfs boards – the highest successful the country.
Giving an example, different authoritative said the UMEED portal sought the day of a survey conducted astir 80 years agone connected a graveyard successful Lucknow. “The burial tract was waqf by use, but determination is nary mode to proviso specified details today,” helium noted. Another Waqf authoritative from U.P. said that the aged gross records are a premix of Persian and Arabic language.
“Even if we negociate to get documents rotting successful authorities departments, determination is nary 1 to work them,” helium said adding that during the gathering of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) gathering of the Waqf Amendment Bill, each these issues were raised and the authorities was asked to propulsion the deadline for registration by astatine slightest 2 years, but the Centre fixed a six-month play starting from June 6.
Boundary details a hurdle
A Waqf Board subordinate from Haryana highlighted another problem: providing precise bound details. In galore cases, a idiosyncratic dedicates only a stock of onshore arsenic waqf, portion different portions stay nether antithetic co-owners.
“If a idiosyncratic has dedicated his stock of property, which is successful the mediate of a larger portion of onshore co-owned by others, arsenic waqf, however tin boundaries beryllium intelligibly defined? But without this, the spot cannot beryllium registered,” the authoritative added.
Akramul Jabbar Khan, a erstwhile Indian Revenue Service serviceman who present manages the Alamgir Masjid, a 46-acre waqf spot successful Pune’s Kondhwa area, said that cipher appears to person studied the mechanics of however things are handled by the Waqf Board, altogether ignoring the circumstantial ineligible provisions of the Waqf Act portion making UMEED portal.
“The portal is built successful hurry with nary deliberations and discussions with Waqf Boards,” helium said.
Government response
Speaking to The Hindu, Minority Affairs Secretary Chandra Shekhar Kumar said that the authorities is leaving nary chromatic unturned successful ensuring afloat transparency and easiness successful uploading data.
Responding to the complaints, the authoritative said that a dedicated method squad is moving to code each contented raised wrong 24 hours. He added that astir of the issues raised by Waqf officials were already solved. The Ministry, helium added, is conducting workshops with Waqf Boards, State governments, and different stakeholders to familiarise them with the amended Act and the caller portal.
The Secretary pointed retired that the earlier WAMSI portal lacked due verification mechanisms starring to missing addresses oregon properties recorded with zero onshore area. The UMEED portal, by contrast, follows a statutory three-tier Maker-Checker-Approver process.
When asked that if respective properties person been marked arsenic zero area, the authoritative said that erstwhile the entries are verified, the last wide waqf landholding volition beryllium little but the standard of shortfall cannot beryllium estimated with specified constricted registrations.
Scale of waqf holdings
It is said that waqf holdings, presently estimated astatine 38–39 lakh acres, relationship for astir 5% of the country’s full onshore country — much than the combined landholdings of the Defence Ministry and Indian Railways.
Reacting to the Ministry’s remark astir properties marked with zero area, a Waqf Board authoritative countered that determination is an “unnecessary hype” aimed astatine portraying Muslims arsenic the country’s largest landowners.
