Chandigarh, October 20
The Punjab government today constituted a survey commission to identify and map all properties of the Wakf Board in the state. Jaspal Singh, Secretary (Revenue), has been appointed as survey commissioner and will be assisted at district-level by the DCs, who have been designated additional survey commissioners. At the tehsil-level, the Sub-Divisional Magistrates will act as assistant survey commissioners and will report directly to the survey commissioner.
The commission has been constituted after a meeting to discuss the recommendations of the Punjab State Law Commission on the issue. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the entire exercise of mapping and identifying the Wakf properties would be completed within three months.
“Properties worth thousands of crores have been occupied or plundered in the past. This is a first attempt to actually find out where these properties are and what is their current status,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said following the survey that Punjab would get a master register of all Wakf properties indicating their legal status - occupied or unoccupied - encroachments, if any, along with its extent and tenure of the officer under whom the property got encroached or alienated.
The state government is also contemplating to fix responsibility of erring officials
who colluded with land mafia to alienate valuable property in prime locations. This is for the first time a serious attempt has been made to streamline the functioning of WAKF Board, which falls under the Home Department.
Sukhbir said the commission has been constituted after Punjab State Law Commission chairman Justice Amarbir Singh Gill’s report recommended it. He said the commission has asked the government to frame rules under Section 109 of the WAKF Act, 1995, to protect properties belonging to the board. Instructions for this have been given to the Home Department.
There is no record so far to suggest how many properties of the Wakf Board have been illegally occupied. The survey commission will plot all properties in Punjab and indicate their current status. The government plans to rescue some of these properties in the second phase, based on the commission’s report.
In its recommendations the state law commission had also asked the state government to order a fresh survey of all properties left behind by those who had migrated to Pakistan following the Partition. Further, the commission has also asked the government to identify the properties that belong to the state and the farmers of the state, but have been wrongly included in the list of Wakf properties.
Based on the recommendation of the survey commission, the state government will constitute tribunals in each district for the adjudication of these properties. Sukhbir Badal said the survey would help in preserving these properties. In the meeting held today, the deputy CM directed the Home Secretary to ensure all help to the commission.
