The Imams of mosques managed by the Delhi Waqf Board on Thursday staged a sit-in near the chief minister’s residence on Flagstaff Road here, demanding payment of their pending honorarium for six months. Nearly 300 staff, including around 225 Imams and Muazzins, of Delhi Waqf Board mosques have not received wages since May, Sajid Rashidi, president of All India Imam Association, said. The employees of the Waqf Board had on November 3 threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Thursday, demanding payment of pending salaries since February. Rashidi said the problem of pending salaries was caused as it was being run without a chairman and a full-time chief executive officer. “We are demanding payment of monthly salaries of Rs 18,000 for Imams and Rs 13,000 for Muazzins not paid for the last six months (since May). Appointment of a full-time CEO and earliest election of chairman of the Board are our other demands,” he said. The financial transactions of the Board are conducted through an account jointly operated by its chairman, member and a government official, sources had said. The seven-member Board has remained headless after Okhla MLA and its then chairman Amantullah Khan completed his term as a member with the Delhi Assembly election in February.
Khan has again been elected as a member of the Board. A meeting of the Delhi Waqf Board last month to elect the new chairman was deferred to November 19, following a case in the Delhi High Court.
