As Centre’s deadline nears, MP yet to register even 10% Waqf properties

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh could not register even ten per cent of the over 15,000 Waqf properties in the state on the Central Waqf portal, Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED), over the last six months, top state and Waqf officials have revealed to TOI. The Centre had set December 6 as the deadline for all states to register their Waqf properties on the portal.Government officials have cited technical hurdles and unavailability of records in filling all heads in the portal and registering Waqf properties. However, they said the state is hopeful that the Centre would extend the deadline beyond December 6. The Union government had launched a new Central Waqf portal on June 6.As per the Waqf Board, the state is home to over 15000 Waqf properties, of which only 1,200 properties have been registered on the central portal so far, not even coming to 10 per cent.Sharing that there were over 9 lakh listed Waqf properties in India, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, earlier in June, said the states were mandated to follow the timelines strictly and the boards must ensure that details of all Waqf properties registered with them are uploaded on the portal within the stipulated 6 months."All old properties that are in keeping with the law — titled and legitimate — will be included. Those that are illegal and without any documents will not be listed. New Waqf properties, going forward, will be included in the database," Rijiju had said after the launch of the portal.Speaking to TOI, MP Waqf Board Chairman Sanwar Patel said the mode of Waqf (how a property was listed as Waqf) column is not there in the portal. "Of the total Waqf properties in MP, 14,164 were registered as Waqf by way of a government survey. In absence of the column where the mode of Waqf is defined, it is difficult to list a property in the Centre's We expect the technical issue would be solved and the December 6 deadline would be extended," he said.Officials in the state Backward Classes and Minority Welfare Department admitted to technical issues with the Centre's UMEED portal, while also pointing out that all the details required to fill in the portal to get a Waqf property registered are also not available for many such properties in the state. The registration process on the portal involves the entry of the property details by the Mutawalli (caretaker). It is followed by validation by Waqf boards and approval by designated government authorities. After verification of records, an entry is made into the ‘UMEED' (Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act 1995) portal.

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