Minister for Haj and Auqaf Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, who is also the Chairman of J&K State Wakf Council, chaired 13th meeting of State Wakf Council here today.Legislators, G M Saroori, Mohammad Yasin Shah and B AMagray were also present in the meeting.Addressing the meeting the Minister asked the concerned for preparing an inventory of Wakf land and property ensuring its protection and preservation and put to better use.Calling upon the concerned to work with missionary zeal to protect the property and use the same to create more assets for improving revenue returns, Peerzada said Wakf is both a department and a religious organization and has a lot of assets which could be utilized for the welfare of community. He asked the administrators and tehsil Auqaf officers to identify Auqaf land in their respective areas with business point of view and put to better use, saying that it would generate employment avenues for the un-employed and improve financial health of the department as well.
Peerzada directed constituting sub-committees for all major works and involving locals in the development and maintenance of Muslim Waqf properties. He asked for constituting sub-committee on Education to look into the aspects of improving the status of schools being run by Waqf Board and setting-up of Madrassa Board on pattern of other states. The Minister said that all measures should be put in place to maintain and protect Waqf properties and expand its activities for upliftment of needy and poor. He asked for mooting proposal for appointing Revenue officials at district level for preparing inventory of Wakf properties and constitution of Committees at District and Tehsil levels which would safe guard the same. He also sought suggestions from the members for making the organization vibrant.
The Council accorded sanction to the release of Dearness Allowance (DA) @ 20 per cent of the basic pay in favour of regular employees of State Wakf Council, besides special allowance of Rs. 3,000/ per head per month in favour of 5 employees of Shahdara Sharief who have been working in hazardous condition. It also approved the decisions taken in the previous meeting.
It was given out that 102840 kanalsWakf land was surveyed, of which 85435 kanals has been notified while as the notification work on the rest of the surveyed land is under process. It was also revealed that an amount of Rs. 5 lakh was given out to 162 widows and students belonging to poor families. Besides beautification of 5- Ziyarats including Panjpeer, Manda, Baba Kanju Peer, Kunjwani, Peer Baba Zahir Ali Shah near Science College Peer Baba Budhan Ali Shah, Satwari and Peer Baba Roshan Shah Wali Gummat has been completed by expending Rs. 2.5 crore and repair work on some other Ziyarats has also been going on.It was given out that in addition to fencing of 12 graveyards in Jammu pision; the work on Markazi Jamia Masjid Rajouri is at the final stage on which an amount of Rs. 5 crore would be expended. The Auqaf Islamia R S Pura has generated Rs. 65.24 lakh besides retrieving land measuring over 3 kanals at Ban-Sultan, the meeting was informed .
Threadbare discussion was also held on the issues including allotment of Auqaf shops at various places, fencing of graveyards, enhancement of honorarium of Imams and their appointment on need basis and construction of Commercial complex at Residency Road, Jammu.Among others, Commissioner Secretary, Revenue Vinod Koul, Special secretary, Law, Special Officer State Wakf Council Abdul Sattar, Administrator, Auqaf Islamia Jammu Raj Mohammad Malik besides Administrators and tehsil Auqaf officers of Jammu pision attended the meeting.