Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan on Wednesday said that his Ministry was exploring the possibility of outsourcing the task of computerising Wakf records to some outside agency.
His Ministry had given the States a three-month deadline to computerize all records of Wakf board properties across the country, failing which he had warned that he would take away Rs 30 crore granted to them for the job.
But four months since the dictat, the states managed to computerize only 50,000 of the 3.28 lakh Wakf property records. Addressing the Chairmen’ and CEOs of state Waqf Boards during the national conference on Waqf (Amendment) Act 2013 on Wednesday, Khan said that the Phase I of the computerisation scheme was to be completed during the 11th Plan itself, but work has been very slow.
“The first phase work as outlined in the scheme needs to be completed by opting alternative arrangements of outsourcing to some agency,” said Khan.
Khan said that due to slow pace of work, the Waqf Boards could not move to the second phase of the scheme under which GIS mapping of Waqf properties needs to be done. “This mapping is envisioned to help in protecting the Wakf land from encroachers,” said Khan.
“If computerization is done in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, it will complete 85 per cent of the first phase of the scheme,” said Khan.
Khan said that his ministry also intends to bring a stand-alone legislation called the Wakf Property (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupant) Act to check encroachment.