Waqf Board to be established in Jammu and Kashmir soon: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Waqf Boards will soon be established within the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and therefore the process for it’s already started, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Friday.

After chairing a Central Waqf Council meeting here, Naqvi during a statement said that Waqf Boards are going to be established within the Jammu-Kashmir and therefore the Leh-Kargil areas for the primary time since Independence.

It has become possible to try to to so only after the revocation of Article 370, he said and added that the Waqf Boards in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will ensure proper utilisation of Waqf properties for the welfare of society.

The central government will provide adequate financial assistance to construct infrastructure for socio-economic and academic activities on Waqf properties within the Union Territories under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karykram (PMJVK)’, Naqvi said.

There are thousands of Waqf properties within the Jammu-Kashmir and therefore the Leh-Kargil areas, and therefore the process has been began to register them, he said within the statement.

Digitisation, geo-tagging or GPS mapping of those Waqf properties has also been initiated and therefore the work are going to be completed soon, the minister said.

In Friday’s meeting, while taking serious note of bungling and encroachment of Waqf properties by “Waqf mafias” in several states, state governments were asked to require strict action in such cases, Naqvi said.

He said that a team of the Central Waqf Council will visit these states during this regard.

Naqvi said that a bit like in other parts of the country, the central government will construct schools, colleges, ITIs, polytechnics, girls hostels, hospitals, multi-purpose community halls ‘Sadbhav Mandap’, ‘Hunar Hub’, common service centres, employment oriented skill development centres and other basic infrastructure on Waqf land in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under the PMJVK.

These basic infrastructure will ensure quality education for the needy and employment opportunities to the youths, he said.

Naqvi said that while only 90 districts of the country had been identified for minority communities’ development earlier, the Modi government has expanded development programmes for minorities in 308 districts, 870 blocks, 331 towns and thousands of the villages.