UP government for PPP push to generate revenue

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has mooted a proposal for developing projects on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model on waqf properties to ensure their better management and generate income for the perennially cash-starved Shia and Sunni Central Waqf Boards.

“I have asked the officials to take advantage of the central government schemes, which provide financial assistance and other benefits for the welfare of minorities and come up with a proposal to set the ball rolling on the plan,” said Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan, minister for Minority Welfare, Muslims Waqf and Haj. UP has a lion’s share of 1.29 lakh waqf properties of the total 5.12 lakh such properties all over the country. Of this, the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board has around 1.23 lakh registered waqfs and the Shia Central Waqf Board manages 6,186 properties.

The minister said the decision

We will discuss the proposal with reputable firms and central government agencies to see how we can take this forward MANOJ SINGH, principal secretary, Minorities Welfare

was taken at a board meeting in which instructions were also issued to the officials to get encroachments removed from all waqf properties. “I recently got 100-acre of prime waqf land freed from encroachers in Bareilly,” he said. Chaudhary said investment in waqf properties was necessary as it would generate income required to support the waqf institution and also ensure their better management and keep them free from the clutches of encroachers and land mafia. “We will discuss the proposal with reputable firms and central government agencies to see how we can take this forward,” said principal secretary, Minorities Welfare, Manoj Singh.

Officials admit that because of lack of necessary infrastructure, staff not to mention funds, waqf boards have failed in their duty to manage and maintain these properties. Consequently, majority of these properties - in terms of real estate, agricultural lands – have either been neglected or have not received the care and attention necessary to make them commercially viable.

“Most waqf properties are either rented or occupied by people who claim to be relatives or descendants of the owners and generate incomes that is not enough to even pay the salary of staff, leave alone fulfill the objectives of Waqf,” said a waqf board official.

The proposal to examine the possible avenues and means through which Waqf properties could be developed in order to make them generate revenue, he said, would go a long way to support and maintain them.