Dearth of staff leaves Delhi Waqf Board paralysed

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Waqf Board, responsible for management of over 2,000 Muslim properties across the city, is facing a 'severe' crunch of technical and revenue officials, sources said.

As against 64 sanctioned posts, 28 posts – mostly technical and revenue related – are lying vacant, hampering upkeep of properties and other works as a result, a government official said.

He stated, "More than 90 per cent work of the Waqf Board relates to revenue. However, there are no revenue officials, such as patwari, kanoongo and tehsildar.

"The last such official retired in 2012, while the post of kanoongo has been vacant for last 30 years," the official added.

The problems of managing properties – including land, shops and residential buildings, located at prominent locations like Daryaganj, Ansari Road, Vasant Kunj, Greater Kailash and other areas – has been affected due to vacancies on technical posts.

The present strength of 36 employees includes about 12-14 peons and drivers, and eight clerks, while there are vacancies of surveyors, junior engineers, zonal officers and revenue staff, sources in the Waqf Board claimed.

"Survey work, monitoring of encroachment and illegal constructions, and collection of revenue are lagging because of the vacancies," the Board officials said.

"The list of 1,964 Waqf properties is going to be expanded with the inclusion of nearly 500 more such properties after they are published in the Gazette.

"The management of all these properties, estimated to be worth over Rs 1,200 crore, will become impossible if vacancies are not filled," the official said.

Official work has also been hampered because the Waqf Board is yet to be constituted, since it was dissolved.

Important files and decisions are lying pending because the seven-member Board has not been reconstituted, after it was dissolved by the former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung in October 2016, over alleged 'irregularities' in the functioning of the Board.