On eve of discussion, Centre introduces 3 changes to Waqf Bill

On the eve of a discussion on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, the government brought three changes in the bill, including the one proposing that the protected monuments declared as waqf would be void.

As per this amendment, all the protected monuments or protected areas cannot be declared as waqf and all those which had been declared so in the past would be nullified after the passage of this bill. For this, the amendment was done in clause 4 of the bill.

The government also brought in another amendment that no land belonging to members of Scheduled Tribes, under the provisions of the fifth schedule or sixth schedule to the Constitution, can be declared as waqf. With this, there would be a bar on declaration of any land in the Scheduled or tribal area as waqf.

CHANGE 3
And as per the last amendment, the government has proposed to fix a time limit of 45 days for implementation of the waqf board decisions by a district magistrate.

These changes were brought late Tuesday night and were circulated to MPs on Wednesday morning.