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The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has cleared the WAQF Bill 1995 with 25 amendments across 14 clauses/sections, according to JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal. In his statement, Pal defended the process and outlined the extensive efforts made by the committee to involve various stakeholders over the past six months.
He said, "The way we had a democratic meeting yesterday, and the amendment that was passed by the government in the WAQF 1995 bill, that amendment was referred to the JPC, in which for the past six months, we have continuously visited states, be it Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, UP, we had 36 meetings in Delhi, and we met with all stakeholders, state government officials, work board, SHIA WAQF board, Sunni WAQF board, minority commissions, Islamic scholars, professors, retired judges, lawyers, high courts, Supreme Court, we met with everyone." He continued, "Now, the meeting that was held yesterday, on those 44 clauses or amendments, we had asked for an amendment from the parties because that is a process, so amendments had come in that, and we have given the opportunity to present each amendment to all the members." Addressing the criticisms from opposition members, Pal stated, "Today, the allegations that are being put, whether it is Kalyan Banerjee, or whether it is A Raja, or whether it is someone else, we have given them the opportunity to speak, we have asked them to present each amendment." Further explaining the voting process, he said, "Then, when there is no agreement on the amendment among the members, there is voting on it, this is a process, and on each of their proposals, we have done voting on the amendment, and in which the voting has been recorded, there is a photograph of it, that on their proposals, they got 10 votes in their favour, and 16 went against them." Pal pressed upon the role of majority vote in the decision-making process, stating, "Whether it is within the parliament, or whether it is a standing committee of the parliament, or whether it is a joint parliamentary committee, it will be decided from the vote of any party, on the basis of majority, whether the amendment is adopted or not." Pal assured the public of the transparency of the process, "It was done in a transparent and democratic way, and on all the clauses, whether it was on any member of the opposition, we have done voting on them, and the result that came out, we have declared it clause by clause every time, and our secretary has recorded." He further confirmed he will present the bill to the members of JPC, "Tomorrow, again in Delhi, we will have our adoption meeting, in which we will present this bill to the members of the joint parliamentary committee, and then we will adopt it. And after that, we will present our JPC report, which is about 500 pages long, we will adopt that report as well. After that adoption, we will request the speaker that we want to present our report." (ANI)
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