Bhopal, Oct 12 — The Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board has allowed management committees to use 95 per cent of income from Waqf properties to increase imams' and muezzins' salaries and support underprivileged children, chairman Sanwar Patel said on Monday.
The remaining five per cent will be shared between the state Waqf Board (four per cent) and the Central Waqf Council (one per cent).
The board is studying Haryana's centralised model to bring uniformity to religious functionaries' salaries. Under the 1949 merger agreement, the Madhya Pradesh government maintains 272 mosques in Bhopal and pays their imams, but their salaries vary.
Patel said around 95 per cent of Waqf properties in the state were under illegal occupation. Of the 125 graveyards in Bhopal, 101 had reportedly disappeared or been encroached upon, leaving 24. The board is working to secure the remaining sites and construct boundary walls.
Citing its recovery efforts, Patel said the board had taken possession of a portion of a property previously occupied by Jeevan Rekha Hospital. The premises were rented out for Rs 1.8 lakh a month, generating an annual income of Rs 21.6 lakh.
The board has introduced rent-fixation guidelines under Section 32(NA), fixing rates at one per cent for residential properties and 2.5 per cent for commercial properties. Its income has increased from Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore, Patel said.
The board pays school fees directly to institutions for 289 orphaned children and has spent more than Rs 2.02 crore on the education of 2,836 children at risk of dropping out due to financial difficulties. It has also announced incentives for meritorious students on a par with those offered by the state government.
“The 2025 law has brought transparency, and 100 per cent of our property records are now online. Properties donated for the welfare of the poor should serve that purpose, and we are taking legal action to recover assets occupied illegally,” Patel told IANS.
The board is pursuing cases against alleged encroachers under Section 54 and through Waqf tribunals. Recovery certificates have been issued in major cases, and FIRs registered in several instances, he said.