Times of India: New Delhi:
Saturday, September 21, 2013.
If you want
to use the RTI Act to know the status of Wakf properties of which there is no
official data and many of which is either encroached upon or usurped you may
have to pay lakhs of rupees as fee.
Disclosing
this startling fact before the Supreme Court on Friday, Moradabad-based NGO,
Manav Vikas Sewa Samiti, said the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Wakf Board had
told the NGO that cost of information sought on management of listed Wakf
property was about Rs 4 lakh and would be furnished after it deposited the
money.
In response
to the RTI query, the Delhi Wakf Board said, "No information is readily
available. And the information sought by the applicant is quite voluminous and
they lack wherewithal to provide the said information as compiling the list of
properties, the disputes, suit numbers, courts' names, present status would be
time consuming process and would be an undue burden on our meager resources.
Hence, we are unable to process the said information."
Making all
Wakf boards as respondents in its public interest litigation, the NGO
complained that four years have passed since the Centre had framed a scheme in
2009 for preparing computerized inventory of Wakf properties and get them back
from encroachers, but till date the list had not reached finality.
A bench of
Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana P Desai and Shiva Kirti Singh
issued notices to all the Wakf boards and sought their responses to the PIL,
which has sought a direction to them to comply with the December 18, 2012 order
of the ministry of minority affairs for computerization of all Wakf properties.
The NGO said
a joint parliamentary committee report on Wakf in October 2008 had recommended
computerization of records of state Wakf boards. On the basis of the
recommendations, the Centre had launched a scheme under e-governance project of
the ministry of minority affairs directing all state Wakf boards to streamline
the records about the Wakf properties. The Centre had earmarked Rs 25 crore for
this.
It said,
"The Wakf properties under encroachment throughout India are worth
trillions of rupees. These could have been used for the welfare of widow, poor,
orphans, homeless, handicapped and destitute."
"Since
the survey of Wakf properties have not been done in most of the states, the
Wakf boards lose out substantial money which could have been generated from
these and utilized for the welfare of the Muslim community," the
petitioner said.
While some
Wakf boards refused to furnish information under RTI Act, others Wakf boards,
which received central grant for computerization of records about Wakf
properties, informed the NGO that they have not yet done the mandated work as
the Centre had not fixed a timeframe for it.