Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
If the sources are to be believed the Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs (MSBW) will soon be shifting its headquarters to a new location in the city.
According to highly placed sources, “The campus of heritage Panchakki will be vacated and set in the old building of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP), near Eidgah Cantonment (opposite Milind College). It is just a kilometer away from the present office. The MJP’s multi-storeyed building was already existing on Wakf land. A couple of years ago, the MJP shifted its headquarters to Vedantnagar (on Railway Station Road). As a result, the building has been lying vacant since then. Hence, the MSBW office mooted the proposal of taking over the old infrastructure.”
The sources added, “The proposal was lastly discussed at length along with other issues of the Department of Minority Development in a meeting held in Mumbai in the last week of September 2023. The issue is being handled on the ministerial level and secretariat level and talks in this regard have been underway since past many meetings. Tentatively the proposal has fetched a green signal. Meanwhile, a demand for funds has also been made to renovate the MJP building prior to setting up of the office with furniture, computer systems, electricity connection network, etc. The new headquarters will also have the Wakf Tribunal on the ground floor or the first floor. Moreover, there was a shortage of space in the present office. Besides, the visitors from all over Maharashtra also grieved of facing inconvenience due to shortage of space in the office as well as parking outside the heritage Panchakki. The new office has adequate office space and open space for parking of vehicles."
No comments : CEO
When contacted the MSBW chief executive officer (CEO), who is also the deputy secretary (Department of Minority Development) M B Tashildar refused to comment saying that the matter does not fall in his jurisdiction as it is under consideration on a higher level.
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PIL on shifting of headquarters
The MSBW headquarters has existed on the campus of Panchakki for the past 60 years. However, there was a row when the former Wakf minister Nawab Malik announced the shifting of the headquarters to Mumbai during a press conference in the city on October 24, 2020. Later on, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed challenging the decision in the Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court in November 2020. The petitioner underlined that the majority of the Wakf properties exist in the Marathwada region, especially in the Aurangabad district. The PIL also requested implementation of the GR of the State Government issued on December 4, 2015. The GR was about the construction of new infrastructure to house the MSBW headquarters and the Wakf Tribunal in the same building. The provision of Rs 1.40 crore fund to do primary level works in the 2015-16 budget was also approved as per the GR.