The Congress which is opposing the Waqf Bill has constituted neither a Waqf Board nor a Haj committee in the last two and a half years of being in power in Himachal Pradesh, BJP state minority cell president Bilal Ahmad Shah said on Wednesday. The Congress has been opposing the changes to the Waqf law and called the Waqf (Amendment) Bill an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday tabled the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, as proposed by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passage.
Shah, who was a member of the state’s Waqf Board under the previous BJP dispensation, welcomed the tabling of the Bill in Parliament. “In the absence of a Waqf Board in Himachal Pradesh, rent issues are pending and people are being subjected to unnecessary trouble,” he told the PTI.
He asserted that the previous BJP government constituted a state Waqf Board within one month of assuming charge.
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“Huge properties are owned by the Waqf Board countrywide and still a large number of Muslims are living in poverty because nothing has been done for them and only a few people are reaping all the benefits,” he said. Shah said ideally, the Waqf Board should pay the electricity and water bills of all mosques under it but it only pays the salaries of Imams. All other expenses are borne by small committees and there is no account of money earned by the Waqf Board, he said. According to the bill, trusts created by Muslims under any law will no longer be considered Waqf, ensuring full control over the trusts. It also proposes that an officer above the rank of collector will investigate government properties claimed as Waqf.
In case of disputes, the senior government official will have the final say on whether a property belongs to Waqf or the government. This replaces the existing system where such decisions are made by Waqf tribunals.