Asaduddin Owaisi questions Waqf Bill JPC chairman's Karnataka visit

Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday, November 7 questioned the Waqf Board Amendment Bill 2024 Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman Jagdambika Pal’s visit to Karnataka amid the state Waqf Board controversy.

On Thursday, Pal visited Karnataka to meet the farmers protesting against notices issued to them for allegedly encroaching on waqf properties. Following the outcry, the notices were withdrawn.

Expressing concern over chairman Jagdambika Pal’s visit, Owaisi said, “The Joint Parliamentary Committee does not have investigation powers. Its job is to look into the Waqf Board Amendment Bill alone.”

He remarked that the JPC chairman cannot act unilaterally as the committee operates collectively. He said that the JPC had already done a consultation regarding the waqf board issue in Karnataka, adding, its members are bound by Parliamentary procedures and therefore cannot explain the chairman’s questionable move.

In a post on X, the AIMIM chief urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to take notice of Pal’s behaviour. “The Chairman of the Joint Working Committee on the Waqf Bill 2024 recently went to Karnataka to look into some local matter. The Committee does not have investigation powers, its job is to look into the Bill alone. Moreover the Chairman cannot act unilaterally & the Committee has to act collectively. We had already conducted a consultation in Karnataka. We are bound by parliamentary procedure so we aren’t in a position to explain the questionable conduct of the Chairman since the formation of the Committee. I hope will take notice of the Chairman’s behaviour,” his X post read.

The Chairman of the Joint Working Committee on the Waqf Bill 2024 recently went to Karnataka to look into some local matter. The Committee does not have investigation powers, its job is to look into the Bill alone. Moreover the Chairman cannot act unilaterally & the Committee has…

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) November 7, 2024

Notices served to farmers

Following a ‘waqf adalat (hearing)’ held on October 10, the Vijayapura district administration issued 124 notices to various properties owned by the Karnataka State Board for Auqaf, or the waqf board. These lands have been occupied by 433 people. Of the 13 taluks in Vijayapura district, two taluks – Indi and Chadachan – made mutations in column 11 of the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) following the notices.

Mutation is a change made in the Record of Rights, Tenancy, and Crops (RTC), with the reason for the change entered in column 11. After verification, an entry is made in column 9 of the RTC, registering the owner of the land.

The BJP took up the issue soon after, and towards the end of October, held an agitation accusing the waqf board of sending notices regarding “1,200 acres of land” at Honwad in Vijayapura district, which it said was cultivated by farmers. The protest was led by BJP leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who called the move “tyrannical” and said the party would move court against “notices” issued by tehsildars on behalf of the waqf board.

Yatnal, who is known for rustling up controversies, also shot off a letter to Prime Minister Modi seeking that waqf properties be nationalised “in view of the arbitrary, blatant violation in claiming of the lands of farmers, landowners, temples, trusts and mutts across the country by the waqf board”.

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