New Delhi: Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday launched the UMEED Central Portal — a groundbreaking digital initiative aimed at ensuring real-time uploading, verification, and monitoring of Waqf properties across India. UMEED (Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development) aims to streamline Waqf property management to ensure fair usage, particularly for the benefit of poor Muslims, women, and children. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju Statement After launching the Umeed portal, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said that this portal is a revolutionary and historic step in better, transparent, efficient and convenient management of Waqf properties. He further said that the state Government and Waqf Board should keep in mind the time limit. First the property should be registered, after that its management and development work will be carried out. This will stop the secret misuse of Waqf property. Earlier, due to lack of information, no one except a handful of people knew which properties were Waqf. Now everyone will know everything. The ministry will launch the portal and also follow it up. The Central Waqf Council, Waqf Boards of the states and the technical team of the ministry have worked hard to make this portal inclusive. Geo-Tagging Of Waqf Properties To ensure accountability, the portal will create a digital inventory with geo-tagging of all Waqf properties, online grievance redressal system for better responsiveness, transparent leasing and usage tracking, integration with GIS mapping and other e-Governance tools, public access to verified records and reports among others. George Kurian Union MoS George Kurian who was also present on the occasion here called the launch a "historic step," asserting that the system will prevent misuse and ensure properties serve their original charitable purposes, said a statement here. Dr Chandra Shekhar At the same time, Union Ministry Affairs Secretary Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar noted the portal's potential to support education, healthcare, livelihood, and welfare for underprivileged Muslim communities. He further said that all people will have to register on the portal within 6 months. Users can login to the portal with mobile number/email ID and then verification will be done with OTP. This verification will be done at three levels. First- Maker, who will be Mutaballi, second- Checker, who will be a district level officer and third- Approver, who will be a CEO level officer.
