NEW DELHI: Days after the government set up a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to examine the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024, officials said that the panel will be headed by senior BJP Lok Sabha member Jagdambika Pal.The joint panel has 31 members — 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha — and will submit its report by the next session. A formal notification naming Pal as the chairperson of the joint committee is set to be issued shortly, officials said. Pal had resigned from the Congress in 2014 to join BJP.The Bill, which proposes sweeping changes in the Waqf Act 1995, faced stiff opposition from the INDIA bloc parties, after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha. Subsequently, the government referred the bill to the JPC for further scrutiny. From giving Centre the power to frame rules to providing representation for women to the inclusion of two non-Muslim members in Waqf boards and a separate Board of Auqaf for Boharas and Aghakhanis, 44 amendments to the Waqf Act 1995 were proposed.
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