Lucknow, Jan. 28 -- The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has cleared the WAQF Bill 1995 with 25 amendments across 14 clauses/sections, according to JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal. In his statement, Pal defended the process and outlined the extensive efforts made by the committee to involve various stakeholders over the past six months.

He said, "The way we had a democratic meeting yesterday, and the amendment that was passed by the government in the WAQF 1995 bill, that amendment was referred to the JPC, in which for the past six months, we have continuously visited states, be it Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, UP, we had 36 meetings in Delhi, and we met with all stakeholders, st...