Waqf Board must reform its working, says Vikramaditya

Amid protests by a section of the majority community over alleged unauthorised mosques and inadequate verification of migrants coming to Himachal Pradesh, state PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh has suggested that the Waqf Board should bring reforms in its functioning.

Time to make changes

With time, it is necessary to bring changes to every law, and similarly, the Waqf Board also needs reforms with changing times. — Vikramaditya Singh, PWD minister

“With time, it is necessary to bring changes to every law, and similarly, the Waqf Board also needs reforms with changing times,” the minister wrote on his Facebook page.

Elaborating on his social media post, he told The Tribune that he was a strong advocate of reforms in all religious institutions, not just the Waqf Board, with changing times. “Reforms are needed everywhere after a certain period of time. Hindu temples have seen many reforms. Late CM Virbhadra Singh brought the Bhima Kali Temple Trust under the ambit of the government, although it was a private trust,” he said.

Reforms in the Waqf Board would make its functioning more effective and transparent, he added. “The streamlined and transparent Waqf Board is in the interest of its own people. The board has around 9.7 lakh acre land across the country. This should generate a revenue of around Rs 2,500 crore for the board every year, but it’s getting only around Rs 150 crore per annum,” he said.

A reformed Waqf Board would help ease communal tension and unrest that the state was witnessing at the moment, he added.

“There appears to be some doubt and suspicion among the people regarding the functioning of the Waqf Board. If there’s transparency in its functioning, doubts and suspicion among the genuinely concerned people will be dispelled. And this will foster peace and harmony among the people in the state,” he added.