- विज्ञापन -
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praised the passage of the Waqf Amendment Bill on Saturday, stating that henceforth, “no one can rob lands in the name of the Waqf Board.” He emphasized that public property would now be utilized for building schools, colleges, hospitals, and housing for the underprivileged.
“Now, no one can rob lands in the name of the Waqf Board… Public property and revenue lands will now be used to build schools, colleges, hospitals, or housing for the poor,” Adityanath noted. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for facilitating the bill’s passage, highlighting that the Waqf board had previously become a means for “illegal land occupation” in Uttar Pradesh.
“I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for this because, in Uttar Pradesh, too, lakhs of acres of land had been illegally occupied in the name of the Waqf Board. It had become a means of loot for some people. Now, this looting will be curtailed,” he added.
Following the bill’s approval by the Lok Sabha (with 288 votes in favor) and the Rajya Sabha (128 votes in favor), several opposition parties have begun protesting and objecting to it, with Congress and AIMIM planning to challenge the bill in the Supreme Court.
Earlier, Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan shared his experience with land disputes related to Waqf. “When I served as a minister in UP, I handled the Waqf department for some time. I frequently met people engaged in property disputes because it is a property matter. What is Waqf? One says it is not their property but Allah’s property. Waqf properties exist for the welfare of the people,” Khan remarked.
After undergoing two days of heated discussions in Parliament, the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 passed in both houses and is now awaiting the assent of President Droupadi Murmu to become law. The government introduced a revised bill after accounting for the recommendations of a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which had reviewed the legislation first proposed in August of the previous year. This bill aims to amend the Act of 1995 to enhance the administration and management of Waqf properties in India, addressing shortcomings of the previous act and improving the efficiency of Waqf boards, including better registration processes and increased use of technology for managing Waqf records.
