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DMK Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, A Raja, on behalf of the Opposition, has requested the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Amendment Bill to postpone the proposed meetings scheduled for January 24 and 25.
In his letter to Jagdamika Pal (JPC Chairman), Raja said, "It is needless to say that the tour programmes of the JPC to meet the stakeholders at Patna, Kolkata and Lucknow were completed only on January 21 and the members were dispersed from the tour programme to their constituency to continue their scheduled programmes earlier." "Strangely, the next dates for the sitting of JPC were hurriedly announced without any formal discussion when the JPC was already on tour," he mentioned. The DMK MP also noted that the request was raised during the JPC sitting in Lucknow on Tuesday. "Moreover, the members are not in a position to recollect the evidence on such short notice which is essentially needed for moving the Amendments and discussion thereon. It is therefore prayed on behalf of the Opposition parties that the sittings of the JPC proposed on January 24 and 25 may kindly be postponed to 30 and 31 as already discussed with you at Lucknow," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, the chairman of the Waqf JPC said that the Lucknow leg will be the last meeting of the Committee. "This is the last meeting of the JPC. We have already visited several states. This is the final leg of the tour, and after this, we will present the JPC report in the budget session. The Government of India has proposed 44 amendments, and we have given time until tomorrow for our members to provide their final views on them," Jagdambika Pal added. He mentioned that on January 24th-25th, the Committee will have a meeting in Delhi and discuss the clauses one by one. "The JPC is a committee with members from different parties. All discussions have taken place in a good environment. I am hopeful that we will provide a report that will benefit the people in the coming days. In the last six months, we have held 34 meetings in Delhi alone. I thank all the MPs who attended all these meetings. I believe it will be a very good report, and based on it, a good law will be made to ensure that Waqf properties are used for their intended purposes," the JPC Chairman said. The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is to submit its report during the budget session. The term of the committee was extended during the winter session of Parliament. (ANI)
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