The Centre’s six-month nationwide effort to digitise Waqf properties ended this week, but only a little over one-fourth of all assets could be registered on the UMEED portal. The exercise began on June 6 and closed on December 6 at 11:59 pm, as required under the Waqf (Amendment) Act and Supreme Court directions.

Data from the Ministry of Minority Affairs shows that 5.17 lakh properties were entered on the portal during this period. Of these:

  • 2,16,905 entries were approved,

  • 2,13,941 are still waiting for verification, and

  • 10,869 were rejected.

The ministry said uploads shot up near the deadline because of repeated review meetings, training workshops, zonal consultations, and a special helpline. Minority Affairs Secretary Chandra Shekhar Kumar also led more than 20 meetings to push states and Union Territories to complete the task.

Even with this push, overall progress stayed low. India has an estimated 8 lakh Waqf properties, but only about 27% were approved on the portal.

Uttar Pradesh has the largest share of Waqf assets, around 2.4 lakh under its Sunni and Shia boards. But its upload numbers were limited. Just 12,982 Sunni properties (11%) and 789 Shia properties (5%) were approved.

West Bengal, which has 80,480 Waqf properties, registered only 716 on the portal. This comes to a completion rate of 0.89%, the weakest among major states.

Some states performed much better:

  • Karnataka: 52,917 out of 65,242 properties (81%)

  • Jammu & Kashmir: 25,046 (77%)

  • Punjab: 24,969 out of 75,511 (90%)

  • Maharashtra: 17,971 out of 36,700 (48%)

  • Gujarat: 24,133 entries (61%)

The UMEED portal is designed to modernise how Waqf assets are managed by:

  • centralising records,

  • geo-tagging land and buildings, and

  • building a single national digital database.

The submission process has three stages: entry by mutawallis, verification by Waqf Board officials, and final approval by board CEOs.

According to the ministry, completing the first phase is a key step towards transparent and efficient administration of Waqf properties, which make up one of India’s largest sets of community-owned assets.