NEW DELHI, 23 January (H.S.): JPC meetings have been called for two consecutive days to finalize the draft of the JPC report on the Waqf Amendment Bill. This JPC meeting will start tomorrow Friday at 11 am. Committee meetings have been called on consecutive Fridays and Saturdays (tomorrow and the day after). There will be a clause-by-clause discussion on the bill in the meeting and the draft of the report will be finalized.

The JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill can submit its report to the Lok Sabha Speaker on 27 or 28 January. After the approval of the Lok Sabha Speaker, the report will be presented in the Lok Sabha in the upcoming budget session. JPC meetings have been called for two consecutive days to finalize the draft of the JPC report on the Waqf Amendment Bill. This JPC meeting will start tomorrow Friday at 11 am. Committee meetings have been called on consecutive Fridays and Saturdays (tomorrow and the day after). There will be a clause-by-clause discussion on the bill in the meeting and the draft of the report will be finalized. JPC members were given time till 4 pm on January 22 to submit amendments to the bill through mail or physical means, which has already passed.

Committee will submit report after two months:

Chairman of this Committee is Jagdambika Pal, who is a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh. The members are 21 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members of this committee, 13 are from opposition parties, whereas, 9 in the Lower House and 4 in the Upper House.More than 20 Waqf boards from across the country have appeared before the committee. After objections from the opposition, the Center sent the bill to the committee for further investigation.The Committee had visited Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow. Meeting held with all stakeholders, State Government officials, Waqf Boards, Minority Commissions, High Court lawyers, Islamic scholars, former judges, Vice Chancellors, members of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and various Tanzims (organizations). .

Meeting will be held on Friday and Saturday:

The committee has received many amendments to be included in the bill. Those amendments will also be discussed in the two-day meeting and if necessary, voting will take place. It is to be noted that some opposition party members of JPC had demanded to postpone the JPC meeting to 30th and 31st, which was not accepted by the JPC Chairman.Two months after the Lok Sabha passed the resolution to extend the tenure of the Parliamentary Joint.

Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, it is believed that the committee may submit its 500-page report in the upcoming budget session. So far, the committee has held 34 meetings in Delhi and visited several states, where more than 24 stakeholders were called.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Meenakshi Bhattacharya