NEW DELHI: The first meeting of the Parliament's joint committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill will be held next week.
The committee, chaired by BJP member Jagdambika Pal, will meet representatives of the ministries of minority affairs, and law and justice on August 22, a notice from the Lok Sabha secretariat said.
The representatives from the minority affairs ministry are also expected to brief the committee on the “amendments proposed on the Bill”, the secretariat said. The Bill is the first major initiative from the BJP-led NDA government aimed at reforming the registration process for Waqf properties through a centralised portal.
It proposes several reforms, including establishing a Central Waqf Council alongside state Waqf Boards with representation to Muslim women and non-Muslim representatives.
A contentious provision of the Bill is the proposal to designate the district collector as the primary authority in determining whether a property is classified as Waqf or government land. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8 and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting the proposed law, did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the opposition calling it a targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.
