A total of 872,352 Waqf properties in the country, 994 are under illegal occupation, Kiren Rijiju gave complete details to the Parliament.

New Delhi: There are a total of 872,352 properties in the country which are with Waqf. Apart from this, 994 properties are under illegal occupation of Waqf. The Central Government told this information to the Parliament on Monday. During the winter session, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas had raised questions about this to the government. Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, in a written reply, said that as per the information available on the WAMSI portal, transfer of 994 Waqf properties has been shown. Transfer means that Waqf has taken illegal possession of it.Kiren Rijiju gave complete information
Kiren Rijiju’s written reply revealed that out of those 994 properties, 734 were illegally occupied in Tamil Nadu alone. CPM MP Brittas had asked in his/her question how many Waqf properties are there across the country and also sought information about the state-wise distribution. Further, he/she had expressed concern about illegally transferred Waqf properties and sought details of such properties.

The minister replied that Section 51(1-A) of the Waqf Act states that any sale, donation, exchange, mortgage or transfer of Waqf property shall be void ab initio. Further, Section 52 of the Waqf Act states that if the Waqf Board after making inquiry in the prescribed manner determines that any Waqf property has been transferred, it may send a proposal to the Collector having jurisdiction over The property is located, to take possession of the property and hand it over to the Board.

Highest in Tamil Nadu
The ministry further said that out of a total of 994 such properties across the country, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of 734 Waqf properties transferred, followed by Andhra Pradesh 152, Punjab 63, Uttarakhand 11 and Jammu and Kashmir 10 properties. Meanwhile, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that no land has been given to the Waqf Board by the Central Government since 2019. In a written reply to a question by Rajya Sabha member Mithilesh Kumar, Minister of State (MoS) Tokhan Sahu said land is a state subject and hence no data of land given by state governments is available with the ministry.

The central government introduced the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in August this year and sent it to the Joint Parliamentary Committee for consideration. The JPC, headed by senior BJP leader Jagdambika Pal, has been given extension to submit its report till the last week of the budget session next year.