The Central Waqf boards are being set-up across the erstwhile state of Jammu, the process has been initiated. As the Jammu Kashmir reorganization Act, 133 Muslim mosques and shrines in Jammu Kashmir were put under the Central Waqf Board, while as, All Hindu and Sikh religious places will be governed by the local shrine boards.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Union Minister for Minority Affairs on Friday said that after the abolition of Article 370, Waqf properties will be taken over by the Central Waqf board. He said that the property and the income of the shrines in Kashmir will be used for socio-economic-educational activities under ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Program’.
He said that the funds of the Waqf board will be under the Prime Minister’s Public Development Program. Naqvi said that for the first time since independence, the government led by Narendra Modi will provide 100 percent of funds for the development of educational and health institutes on Waqf properties across the country.
Addressing the press conference, Naqvi said that there are about 6 lakh 64 thousand registered Waqf properties across the country.
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Naqvi said that there are thousands of Waqf properties in Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir and the process of registration of these properties under the Central Waqf is going on.
Sources within the Waqf board told The Kashmiriyat that they have been asked to digitize all their records of the local properties of the Waqf board and start registration of the entire process in a short span.
Jammu Kashmir Muslim Auqaf Trust (MAT) came into existence in 1940 as part of the resistance movement led by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
He freed many shrines and mosques of Kashmir under the Dogra rule with the intent to form the local community-based help for the destitute.
MAT was disbanded in 2004 by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Waqf came into the picture with an expectation that the Waqf Board would do wonders as the government claimed to have freed the waqf from the ‘Family rule.’
As per official figures, the Waqf board owns 1453 shops, 2160 Kanals of orchard land, 99 Kanals of paddy land, 6840 Kanals of forest land, 32 Kanals of marshy land, and 63 Kanals of Eidgah Land.