JPC on Waqf (Amendment) Bill to conduct meeting on Nov 21

The meeting will be conducted in the Parliament House Annexe building in New Delhi. Since its formation, the committee has held 25 meetings in Delhi and this meeting on November 21 will be its 26th meeting in a row.

In this meeting, the Ministry of Minority Affairs will give a presentation before the committee.

The last meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was held on November 11 in Bhubaneshwar.

Meanwhile, on November 12, JPC Chairperson Jagadambika Pal said that the committee's tour to Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow has been postponed after the request of several MPs who are engaged in assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as well as by-elections in other states.

"Elections are being held in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. By-elections are also being held in many states. Many MPs have requested me to pause the study tour owing to their busyness during the elections. Our remaining study tour of Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow has been postponed. We will reschedule it for later," he said.

A meeting was chaired by JPC chairman Jagatambika Pal in Assam's Guwahati on November 9 and in Odisha's Bhubaneswar on November 11.

Earlier the meeting was also held in Maharashtra's Mumbai, Gujarat's Ahmedabad, Telangana's Hyderabad, Tamilnadu's Chennai and Karnataka's Bengaluru from September 26 to October 1.

It is pertinent to note that The Waqf Act, 1995, which was created to regulate waqf properties, has long faced allegations of mismanagement, corruption and encroachments. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 seeks to bring sweeping reforms, introducing digitisation, stricter audits, transparency and legal mechanisms to reclaim illegally occupied properties. The JPC is holding a series of meetings to gather input from government officials, legal experts, Waqf Board members and community representatives from different states and Union Territories, aiming for the most comprehensive reform possible. (ANI)