Under fire from Muslim organisations for ignoring the Sachar committee report on the Waqf properties, Union Minister Salman Khurshid finds himself also caught in a turf war on the issue between two ministries he heads while thousands of families continue to illegally occupy the charity properties of the Waqf.
The minority affairs ministry wanted use of the Public Premises Act, 1971, to remove unauthorised occupants from Waqf properties, but the law ministry, which is also under him, shot down the proposal on the ground that the Act is for summary evictions from "public premises" and not from the Waqf premises.
When the former sought amendment
in the Public Premises Act to include the Waqf properties in the definition of the "public premises," the law ministry wrote back to better get the summary eviction provision incorporated in the Waqf Act itself.
While the two ministries keep fighting, the illegal occupants of the Waqf properties can sit pretty and watch the game.
The minority affairs ministry's officials have even ignored the recommendation of a Parliamentary committee, headed by Prof Saifuddin Soz, to incorporate the relevant provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act into the Waqf (amendment) Bill pending before Parliament since 2010.