A Delegation of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Kashmir Chapter Comprised of Mr Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya Baldev Singh Raina,
Jan Muhammad Kaul, Tariq Rashid Ghani, Akib Chaya, Qaisar Mir and Aashiq
Ahmad had a call on meeting with Dr Darakhshan Andrabi, Member
Central Waqaf Council and Chairperson, Waqaf Development Committee,
Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India.
The
Chamber appreciated the relentless dedication and hard work of Dr
Andrabi in reforming protecting and preserving the existing waqaf
properties of J&K Including shrines, most of which are historic.
The
Chamber stated that the managerial structure of the Aquaf Department
must be improved. Simultaneously, to enable and encourage the creation
of world class facilities in Shrines, this prestigious Institution of
J&K must be modernized and the gross and visible corruption and
mismanagement needs to be audited urgently.
The
chamber highlighted the issues confronted by the tenants /lessees due
to absence of any decision making body in the Aquaf and the chamber
suggested that it is important to have an advisory group of concerned
citizens, who are devout believers and can give advice on better
management of the Shrines. The chamber stated that the revenues from
different sources of Aquaf should be ploughed back into improving the
facilities in the Shrines, especially public health facilities, building
schools, Universities and Professional Institutions.
Mr
Baldev said that the Sikh Gurduwara present a marked contrast. They are
meticulously clean, mainly due to the voluntary service offered by
members of the community. Regretfully, in Muslim Shrine the concept of
kar sewa has not caught on and being myself a devotee of all Muslim
shrines of Kashmir I have witness gross mismanagement and lack of
cleanliness and arrangements in these shrines, Raina further offered
that He will take care of Shoes of all devotees of all shrines of
J&K and He will do this free service for his life time and will
engage his own human resource and infrastructure for this dignified
service.
Jan Muhammad
Kaul and Tariq Rashid Ghani while highlighting the crores of donations
made by devotees are being looted in broad day light and due to lack of
accountability nobody knows where the money goes and there is urgent
need for carrying out the human resource audit in waqaf and it was
stated that most of the illiterates occupying post in Waqaf are at the
behest of political affiliations and irony is that our literate highly
qualified youth are running from pillar to post for earning their
livelihood.
While
concluding the meeting Dr Andrabi ensured PHDCCI that she will
contribute religiously for this noble cause of improving and reforming
and protection of the waqaf properties of J&K. She added that the
successive governments in J&K did nothing to rejuvenate and restore
the glory of this prestigious institution and unfortunately every
political party has used this religious institution for its own
interests. Dr Andrabi said that Waqaf should take lessons from Boards
and Trusts of other religions who have created world class multiple
assets like Hospitals and universities. The donations and charities from
our shrines originates from people and it should go back to the people.
So, there must be clearly laid-out policies to productively utilize the
funds of these places on public welfare. The Supreme Court directive to
all religious institutions to furnish an annual account of their income
and expenditure is a milestone in this regard.
Moreover,
all religious places and institutions are important components of our
economic system. Thanks to religious tourism, they are a huge source of
employment not only in the projects associated with the management of
these institutions, but also in the ancillary activities of provisioning
and supplying required materials and manpower, therefore with the
support of the Chambers and associations like PHD who are focused on
economic development we will reform and restructure the Waqaf of J&K
and will set an example by modernizing this institution.
