NEW DELHI: Parliament’s Joint Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill will hold its first meeting on Thursday and its members are scheduled to interact with representatives of the ministries of minority affairs, and law and justice.The 31-member committee, headed by BJP member Jagdambika Pal, has been tasked by the Lok Sabha to scrutinise the contentious bill, which has drawn protests from the opposition parties and Muslim organisations.The representatives from the minority affairs ministry are expected to brief the committee on the “amendments proposed on the Bill”, the Lok Sabha secretariat said.The Bill is the first major initiative from the BJP-led NDA government aimed at reforming the registration process for Waqf properties through a centralised portal.It proposes several reforms, including establishing a Central Waqf Council alongside state Waqf Boards with representation to the Muslim women and non-Muslim representatives.A contentious provision of the Bill is the proposal to designate the district collector as the primary authority in determining whether a property is classified as Waqf or government land.The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8 and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting that the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the opposition calling it a targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.
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