31-member Parliament committee to study Waqf Bill
New Delhi, August 9
A day after the Congress-led Opposition sought greater scrutiny of the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill, a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was formed on Friday to study the proposed legislation in detail.
The committee includes 31 members from both Houses of Parliament, with 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha. The panel is likely to present its report during the Winter Session of Parliament.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju proposed the names of 21 Lok Sabha MPs for the JPC and asked the Rajya Sabha to recommend 10 names to be appointed to the panel.
From the Lok Sabha, the joint panel will have Gaurav Gogoi, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant, BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Jagdambika Pal, Tejasvi Surya, Aparajita Sarangi, Sanjay Jaiswal, Dilip Saikia and Abhijit Gangopadhyay, as well as from other parties like DK Aruna, Imran Masood, Mohammad Jawed, Maulana Mohibullah Nadvi, A Raja, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Dileshwar Kamait, Suresh Gopinath, Naresh Ganpat Mhaske and Arun Bharti.
Opposition parties had opposed the Bill’s introduction, saying its provisions were against Muslims, federalism and constitutional provisions. But the government had asserted that the proposed law did not intend to interfere with mosques’ functioning. — TNS
