Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Wednesday yet again trained its guns towards Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, this time charging him for delaying the constitution of the Delhi Waqf Board “without any valid reason”.
The party said attempts by successive L-Gs to scuttle the functioning of the Board gave rise to suspicion that it was being done under influence of “land mafia” and “vested interests” in Delhi.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that view taken by the L-G that the constitution of the Waqf Board should be done only after the disposal of the case by the High Court was “surprising” and beyond “reasonable understanding”.
Sisodia said the process of constituting Delhi Waqf Board was pending for more than a year after the last L-G Najeeb Jung dissolved it. Sisodia alleged that it was “illegally” and the then L-G had “usurped the powers of the board” to run it through his officers in “complete violation of law”.
Sisodia said that the High Court in its order dated 10 November 2017 had only directed that the vacancy in respect of the fourth member ~ Muslim member of the Bar Council of Delhi ~ shall not be filled till further directions but had nowhere mentioned to stay the process of constituting the Board.
“The names of the three nominated members for the Board,” Sisodia pointed out, “were approved by none other than L-G on 7 December 2017.”
“The constitution of the Waqf Board cannot be put on hold simply on the ground that the Delhi High Court has stayed the filling up of vacancy in a particular category,” he added.
Sisodia claimed that the L-G’s decision to delay the constitution of the elected Board, gave rise to a reasonable view that it is being done to allow the officers selected by him to continue administering Waqf properties running into hundreds of crores of rupees.
The minister went on to state that AAP government had continuously waged a struggle against land mafia to free the Waqf properties from the illegal control, and “the attempts by successive L-Gs to scuttle the functioning of the Board gave rise to sufficient suspicion about the clout of the land mafia and vested interests in Delhi.”
“The latest decision by the L-G raises an important question that if his interference continues like this, how will an elected government, which is directly accountable to the people of Delhi, implement its decisions,” Sisodia remarked.
Sisodia, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said the view taken by the L-G was seriously hampering the functioning of the Waqf Board and Imams of various mosques were not getting their salaries.