Opposition Members Demand More Time For Waqf Panel To Submit Report

Lok Sabha asked the committee to submit its report on the last day of the first week of the winter session of Parliament beginning Monday.

New Delhi:Opposition members on Thursday demanded an extension of the tenure of the Joint Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill, contending that they need more time to study the changes to the draft legislation.

At a huddle of the committee, Chairman and BJP member Jagdambika Pal announced that Thursday's meeting would be the last sitting of the panel and a draft report would be circulated to the members shortly.

This led to protests by the Opposition members who resorted to sloganeering and some of them called Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and sought his intervention in the matter.

The committee has been asked by the Lok Sabha to submit its report on the last day of the first week of the winter session of Parliament beginning Monday.

The government has already listed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill for consideration and passage in the Winter session "after the report of the joint committee is presented to the Lok Sabha".

In the past too, opposition members on the panel have accused Pal, a BJP MP, of doing the government's bidding. They had earlier even threatened to disassociate themselves from the panel's work.

Their main concern was the frequent day-long meetings of the panel which did not allow them to prepare adequately and had accused Pal of "bulldozing proceedings" by not consulting them in picking on whom to call to depose.

Several opposition members of the committee had earlier too approached Speaker Birla against Pal.