The Advisor Khurshid Ahmad Ganai on Thursday appointed former chief information commissioner G R Sufi as the vice–chairman of J&K Muslim Waqf Board and promised that he will ensure transparency in the system and check corruption that is allegedly plaguing the body.
Ganai, who is also the chairperson of the Waqf, chaired the27th board meeting along with the board members at Circuit House in Church Lanehere. The meeting discussed the protection and preservation of waqf properties.
“The biggestchallenge we face presently is how to increase the revenue of the waqf board,how to cut the expenses, and how to improve asset generation. I hope that wewill work towards the betterment of the board in future,” Ganai who recentlytook over as the chairman of the board told reporters on the sidelines of theevent.
Talking about investigating the alleged embezzlements thathave taken place in the board, Ganai assured that the new management will takeaction if it found anything wrong.
“The audit is also going on. If something will come up,definitely inquiry has to be done. It has to be seen what went wrong, and thenthere are norms to be followed to correct that wrong.”
After the fall of the government in June, heads of variousdepartments and institutions who were appointed by the then ruling allianceresigned from their positions, adhering to a well-established convention. TheGovernor, who had assumed powers as head of the state administration made allthe political appointees of the previous government resign.
Nizam-ud-din Bhat, a senior leader of the PDP resigned as VCof the Board in July soon after the fall of the coalition government, but hisresignation was not accepted because the law governing it was silent about thefunctioning of the institution in times of Governor’s rule.
However, in September, the new Governor amended the Waqflaws, paving way for the constitutional head of the state to take control intimes of emergency.
The amendment allows the Governor to appoint any ’eminentMuslim’ including one of his advisors as chairman of the waqf board, in case heis not a Muslim himself.
Consequently, Khurshid Ganai was appointed as chairman withthe authority to accept Bhat’s resignation.
In December last, chairman waqf board nominated G R Sufi asits Vice- chairman, more than five months after the position fell vacant. Thevalidity of the nomination was till the formal elections were held. Theelections were supposed to be held soon after the nomination, but it took theboard over three months to sit together and elect the vice–chairman.
After much delay the board members formally elected Sufi asits vice- chairman.
As per the Jammu and Kashmir Specified Waqf Act, “avice-chairman shall be responsible for the overall functioning of the board andshall subject to overall guidance and supervision of the board. Some of the keyfunctions of the vice-chairman include utilising endowment funds for theupliftment and empowerment of the Muslims in the state, and to sanction reliefto the indigent and destitute.”
The Act further states that, “the VC can sanction ex-gratiapayments to any person connected with the working of the Board including itsemployees in case of injury inflicted during performance of duty up to Rs 5000in each case subject to overall limit of Rs 1 lakh in a year, allotment ontemporary license of any property of the board for a period not exceeding 11months.”