As the waqf portal is set to go live, TG Waqf Board ‘waiting for clarity’

Hyderabad

With the Union government all set to launch the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development (UMEED), a portal that seeks to collate documents connected to waqf properties, purportedly for managing them better, the Telangana State Waqf Board (TGSWB) is still awaiting clarity.

“We are aware that the portal is going to be launched tomorrow. But we are still waiting for clear guidelines from the Ministry of Minority Affairs about what all documents are required, and which ones will be accepted. As far as we know, the portal will accept document uploads for the next six months,” TGSWB Chairman Syed Azmatullah Hussaini told The Hindu.

A key concern, Mr. Hussaini said, that still remains, is the documentation of old places of worship such as those belonging to the Qutb Shahi period. “We are yet to see what how to deal with documents connected to such masjids. With the portal going live from tomorrow, and in the absence of documents of a large number of Qutb Shahi masjids, we have to check as to how we should proceed,” he said.

Meanwhile, others from the TGSWB pointed out that the portal is likely to have a three tier system. First, the mutawalli (manager of a waqf institution) will have to upload documents, for instance, a gazette notification. This is then verified by an officer at the TGSWB. The final approving authority would be the Chief Executive Officer.

“The previous online management system – the Waqf Asset Management System – will not be in use. Moreover data from this will not be migrated to the new portal. Ideally, it would have been better had the Central government waited for the Supreme Court judgment before going ahead with the portal,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the TGSWB is continuing its efforts to strengthen documentation of properties in its custody. The board’s CEO, Mohammed Asadullah, wrote letters to government agencies, such as the Chief Commissioner Land Administration, and the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute, and sent staff to obtain copies of documents of properties considered waqf.