Union Minister for Minority Affairs K. Rahman Khan on Saturday said a Bill on the lines of the Public Premises Act, 1971, aimed at protecting Wakf properties would be introduced in Parliament in the ensuing session.
He told reporters before holding a review meeting with members and officials of the A.P. State Wakf Board and A.P. Minorities Commission that the draft was ready and that it sought to plug loopholes that were now coming in the way of effectively safeguarding precious properties.
“While States will be given the freedom of formulating their own set of rules for administrative purposes, we are proposing rules that will be uniform across the country that would primarily deal with lease, rent or sale of Wakf properties. And for the first time, we are proposing to take current market values into consideration,” the Minister explained.
Mr. Rahman Khan said once enacted, the Bill would be with retrospective effect but declined to specify the timeline from when it would be effective.
He said the Ministry was only six years old and considering its age, lacked in infrastructure. The challenges in implementing welfare schemes and monitoring them included different priorities by different State Governments. But a serious beginning was made with an allocation of Rs. 17,775 crore for minority welfare in the current five year plan, compared to just about Rs. 8,000 crore in the last plan, he pointed out.
