Parliament Question: UMEED portal for digital registration of Waqf

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.30 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.02.2026 UMEED PORTAL FOR DIGITAL REGISTRATION OF WAQF

30. SHRI HARIS BEERAN:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:-

(a) whether Government is aware that the UMEED portal for digital registration of Waqf properties faced persistent technical glitches during late 2025, including server crashes, login failures, missing or inaccessible fields, delayed uploads and other functional issues;

(b) if so, the details of these technical issues, including a State-wise and month-wise breakdown of Waqf properties uploaded, approved, pending and rejected, specifying which States/UTs were most affected by portal malfunctions; and

(c) the steps taken or proposed to resolve these technical problems, such as system upgrades, additional training for Waqf Boards, helplines or independent technical audits? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 30 FOR ANSWER ON 02.02.2026 REGARDING ‘UMEED PORTAL FOR DIGITAL REGISTRATION OF WAQF’ ASKED BY SHRI HARIS BEERAN

(a) to (c): In accordance with the provisions of Section 3(ka) of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995, the term “portal and database” refers to the waqf asset management system or any other system established by the Central Government for registration, maintenance of accounts, audit and other details of waqf and Waqf Boards, as may be prescribed.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Minority Affairs developed and launched the statutory UMEED Central Portal-2025 on 06.06.2025 for uploading details of existing waqf and properties dedicated to the waqf, registration of new waqf, and for facilitating the overall management and governance of waqf in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Section 3B(1) of the UMEED Act, 1995 mandates that all existing waqf and waqf- dedicated properties registered prior to the commencement of the amended Act shall be uploaded on the Portal within a period of six months, with a provision for further extension of up to six months by the Waqf Tribunal on sufficient cause being shown by the mutawalli. As prescribed under the Act, detailed particulars of each waqf are required to be entered on the Portal.

To ensure smooth implementation, the Ministry undertook extensive consultations and capacity-building exercises prior to and following the launch of the Portal. Two rounds of consultative meetings were held on 28 February 2025 and 08 May 2025 with State/UT Waqf Boards to demonstrate the prototype and incorporate feedback. Further, a national workshop-cum- training programme was organised on 26–27 May 2025, wherein approximately 140 Master Trainers from various State/UT Waqf Boards were trained. These trainers were subsequently tasked with imparting training to mutawallis and district-level officers.

The Ministry has been extending continuous technical and administrative support to facilitate this process. It may be noted that approx. eight (8) meetings through Video conference with the State/UT Governments and Waqf Boards were held during which all issues related to the Portal including filing of mandatory details as per the Act, were discussed and resolved. In addition, two (2) separate State level workshops were also organized at the Ministry of Minority Affairs with Himachal Pradesh Waqf Board, J&K Waqf Board, Punjab Waqf Board, Chandigarh Waqf Board and Odisha Waqf Board on 08.08.2025 and on 26.11.2025 with Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board. Further, similar separate meetings with State/UTs Waqf Boards were also held as and when required to expedite the uploading of waqf property details on the UMEED Central Portal-

2025.Moreover, 6 Zonal review meetings were also held as detailed in the table below: - S. Date of the Place Participating States No. meeting

1. 01.09.2025 Patna (Bihar) Bihar (Shia/Sunni), UP(Shia/Sunni) and Jharkhand Waqf Boards

2. 09.09.2025 Guwahati (Assam) Assam, Manipur, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya Waqf Boards

3. 26.09.2025 Bhopal (Madhya Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Pradesh) Chhattisgarh Waqf Boards

4. 03.09.2025 Bhubaneswar Odisha Waqf Board

(Odisha)

5. 06.10.2025 Bengaluru Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,

(Karnataka) Telangana and Tamil Nadu Waqf Boards

6. 15.10.2025 Kavaratti Lakshadweep, Gujarat and

(Lakshadweep) Maharashtra Waqf Board Weekly progress reports are also being shared with all States/UTs Government and Waqf Boards. Additionally, around 10 review meetings with officials of State/UT Governments and Waqf Boards have also been taken by the Secretary (MA) at various States.

To facilitate users and address technical or procedural challenges, a UMEED Helpdesk has been operational since the launch of the Portal, with a toll-free number (1800-11-0150) and an email address (support-umeed@gov.in). The Helpdesk is jointly monitored by the Portal Helpdesk Team, the Technical Team and the Waqf Division of the Ministry to ensure timely grievance redressal. A comprehensive User Manual, along with demonstration videos, has also been uploaded on the Portal to provide step-by-step guidance and enhance user accessibility.

Following the launch and subsequent scaling-up of the UMEED Central Portal-2025, certain intermittent technical and operational issues were reported by some users, particularly during the initial phase and during periods of high concurrent usage. These issues were almost uniform across all States/UTs and were largely transitional and operational in nature, rather than indicating of any systemic malfunction of the Portal.

The issues arose primarily due to digitization of large volumes of legacy data, variations in internet connectivity at the user end, differing levels of digital preparedness among field-level functionaries, and gaps in the availability of statutory records with certain State Waqf Boards.

The issues reported included occasional login delays due to delayed receipt of OTPs attributable to user-end connectivity, non-submission of certain mandatory fields owing to non- availability of requisite documents, and issues relating to data validation under the maker-checker- approver workflow. In several instances, such difficulties arose due to the non-availability of records prescribed under the Act with certain State Waqf Boards.All such issues and queries were addressed as and when received through the Helpdesk mechanism, and necessary clarifications, remarks and resolutions were provided on the Portal under the grievance redressal module. Notwithstanding these issues, the Portal remained largely functional throughout the prescribed period, and the process of digital uploading of details of waqf and waqf- dedicated properties continued across States and Union Territories.

Moreover several communications were also received from the stakeholders on the matter.

The issues raised therein were addressed and resolved on a real-time basis, and the replies along with details of the grievances redressed have been uploaded on the UMEED Central Portal-2025 i.e.

https://umeed.minorityaffairs.gov.in/ and those were also resolved during the video conferences & Zonal Review Meetings.

A State-wise and month-wise monitoring mechanism has been built into the Portal to continuously track the status of waqf properties uploaded, approved, pending or reverted. This mechanism enables early identification of bottlenecks, targeted technical support and focused compliance-oriented interventions. Based on continuous monitoring, no State or Union Territory has been identified as having been disproportionately affected due to any systemic or persistent technical malfunction of the Portal.

The UMEED Central Portal-2025 was launched on 06.06.2025. While the pace of data submission during the initial months was modest, a substantial increase in uploads was observed towards the latter part of the prescribed period, including significant volumes uploaded during the final month and in the last week. A State-wise and month-wise Waqf Progress Report on the UMEED Central Portal is as Annexure-I.

The initial six-month period concluded on 06.12.2025, and the Portal was closed at 23:59 hours on the same day. During this period, 5,17,082 existing waqf properties were initiated by Makers on the Portal. Of these, 2,16,937 properties were validated and approved by Approvers, and 10,872 properties were rejected during verification. The remaining are in the pipeline.

As per Rule 3 of the UMEED Rules, 2025, the uploaded data has been examined and instances of erroneous entries, particularly relating to the area of waqf properties, were observed. Accordingly, all State Waqf Boards have been advised to re-verify the area details with reference to relevant land records. In cases where discrepancies involving unusually large area entries persist, the same shall be re-examined by nominated State Government officials.

*****ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (B) OF THE RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 30 FOR ANSWER ON 02.02.2026 REGARDING ‘UMEED PORTAL FOR DIGITAL REGISTRATION OF WAQF’ ASKED BY SHRI HARIS BEERAN S. State waqf Jun Jul August Septembe Octobe Novembe Decem Total No Board Name e y r r r ber 1 Andaman And 0 0 0 0 12 119 82 213 Nicobar Islands 2 Andhra Pradesh 0 4 0 52 421 9523 1290 11290 3 Assam 0 0 2 1 32 306 340 681 4 Bihar Shia 0 0 12 6 15 3379 1808 5220 5 Bihar Sunni 0 10 193 181 161 5208 4231 9984 6 Chandigarh 0 0 10 5 3 5 0 23 7 Chhattisgarh 0 0 0 0 0 1091 833 1924 8 Dadra & Nagar 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 Haveli And Daman And Diu 9 Delhi 2 1 0 1 22 2194 932 3152 10 Gujarat 0 1 2 18 468 8246 18725 27460 11 Haryana 1 0 0 439 3701 8580 724 13445 12 Himachal Pradesh 1 0 0 62 204 542 90 899 13 Jammu And 0 0 18 558 1202 17490 6025 25293 Kashmir 14 Jharkhand 0 0 1 22 27 247 259 556 15 Karnataka 0 0 0 31 5816 46578 5903 58328 16 Kerala 0 3 0 0 32 2995 39747 42777 17 Lakshadweep 0 0 1 3 2 43 419 468 18 Madhya Pradesh 0 1 0 3 15 4904 16398 21321 19 Maharashtra 0 2 15 37 2196 39657 21032 62939 20 Manipur 1 3 0 0 0 248 141 393 21 Meghalaya 0 0 0 0 0 7 6 13 22 Odisha 1 12 107 945 1942 1344 1850 6201 23 Puducherry 0 0 0 0 1 145 474 620 24 Punjab 1 2 4 1655 4298 16421 3529 25910 25 Rajasthan 0 4 13 11 168 7073 14969 22238 26 Tamil Nadu 0 0 0 0 12 1432 6808 8252 27 Telangana 0 1 0 2 2244 23189 21046 46482 28 Tripura 0 0 397 1 0 1879 503 2780 29 Uttarakhand 0 2 7 100 225 775 1170 2279 30 UP Shia 0 0 12 51 163 3230 3030 6486 31 UP Sunni 2 2 7 140 2354 31363 52494 86362 32 West Bengal 2 3 21 3 90 4248 18724 23091 Total 11 51 822 4327 25826 242463 243582 517082