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BJP made Waqf Act, TMC won't allow anybody to touch properties: West Bengal CM

KOLKATA: In an apparent attempt to retain the Trinamool Congress' Muslim vote bank for ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that the BJP made the Waqf Act, not her party. We wont follow the Act and have opposed it in the state legislative assembly. The state government has filed a case in the Supreme Court. The case is still on and I wont allow anybody to touch the Waqf properties, Mamata said while addressing a party rally at Gazole in Malda district. Earlier this year, the Central Government amended several provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995. While some of these amendments remain under consideration before the Supreme Court, a senior official of the state government pointed out that here is no stay on the implementation of the Centre's proposed changes. The state is obliged to follow the directive within the given timeframe, he felt. Under the amended rules, mutawallis (caretakers of a waqf) of 8,063 Waqf estates in Bengal must register complete property details on the UMEED portal by 6 December, he elaborated. The Trinamool Congress supremos statement came hardly four days after her government directed district magistrates (DMs) across the state on Friday to upload details of Waqf properties to the Central Governments Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) portal. The state minority affairs and madrasah education department sent the directive to the DMs in this regard at a time when some officials in the department felt that the exercise as a ime-bound compliance requirement set by the Centre. The Centre has asked the states to upload information on all undisputed Waqf properties by 6 December, prompting the state administration to start the data-entry process immediately, according to officials. The directive sent to DMs lists four primary issues. They have been asked to convene meetings with imams, muezzins (a person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer five times a day at a mosque) and madrasa teachers to explain the uploading procedure, an official said. The DMs have been told that only uncontested properties are to be entered in the portal, he said. All districts have been asked to set up facilitation centres wherever technical support is necessary, the official added. Bengal government order to upload details of the states waqf properties onto the UMEED portal has triggered a political controversy, the state having earlier said it would not implement the amended Waqf Act that came into force in April. Senior BJP leaders in the state held the chief minister responsible for the communal violence in Samserganj, Murshidabad, arising from a protest against the amendment in April this year. Will Mamata Banerjee apologise to Hindus in Mothabari (Malda) where 68 shops belonging to them were vandalised? leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had said hours after the state governments directives to the DMs to upload the Waqf properties on UMEED portal on Friday. Bengal is home to around 82,000 waqf properties under nearly 8,000 waqf estates.

3 Dec 2025 3:39 pm