Municipal Administration and Wakf Minister Qamar-ul Islam has said that survey of all the wakf properties in the State would be completed by December, and a gazette notification of wakf properties with authentication by the Revenue Department would be published.
Speaking to the The Hindu here on Sunday, Mr. Qamar-ul Islam said that all details of wakf properties would be available online. Unlike the “unauthorised and haphazard” survey conducted earlier by the Minorities Commission chief Anwar Manpadi under the BJP government, the ongoing survey was being conducted in accordance with the rules.
The survey has been taken up by surveyors from the Revenue Department which will authenticate the findings.
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Mr. Qamar-ul Islam said that the surveyors had completed 70 per cent of the survey in all districts.
A meeting of the Deputy Commissioners at the divisional level was being convened in August to take stock of the survey work and to expedite the work to meet the deadline of completing the survey work by December.
“Our priority is to complete the survey work at the earliest and publish the details of wakf properties to clear doubts in the minds of the people,” he said.
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About the encroachments on wakf properties, Mr. Qamar-ul Islam said that this too would be studied during the survey, and the results would be published.
“According to preliminary studies, very few wakf properties have been encroached upon or illegally used by the others and every single detail of wakf properties would be available online after the completion of the survey,” the Minister said.
To a question, Mr. Qamar-ul Islam, who also holds the Minority Development portfolio, said that the government would soon come out with a new programme for providing a financial assistance of Rs. 50,000 to meet the marriage expenditure of girls of minority communities hailing from poor economic background.
The details of the scheme were being worked out.
The Minister said that the government proposes to establish 200 minority welfare centres in district and taluk headquarters to act as a nodal agency for minority community members to benefit from welfare schemes launched by the Union and State governments.
These welfare centres would have a second division clerk and a peon and other infrastructure to provide details of welfare schemes to the members of the minority communities and help them avail themselves of the benefits. The establishment of minority welfare centres would end unnecessary harassment faced by minority communities in getting benefits under different schemes and also end the menace of middlemen who take a percentage from beneficiaries for getting sanction under welfare schemes.