After the Uttar Pradesh government proposed the merger of the Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards, Shia cleric Maulana Yasub Abbas said such a step would not reduce corruption in the statutory bodies.
"The government should take every possible step to end corruption but my personal experience says that corruption is not less in the states where Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards are united. It is because corruption depends on the people, not on the organisation. If the authorities controlling the board work with transparency and honesty, then you can evade corruption in any organisation," he said.
"Therefore, I think, a better decision could have been taken, like the appointment of honest and capable people on the board to strengthen the organisation," he added.
When asked about problems in uniting the two Waqf Boards, Abbas said, "Uttar Pradesh is a large state and it will be troublesome to rearrange the Waqf (donation) provided to the two boards in one place".
"The government has several options available to end corruption, but it can impose the merger if it only wants to boast," he concluded.
Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan also criticised the government proposal saying, " The BJP should apologise, because their government is not even aware that Parliament had passed the merger law long ago. I never imposed it in Uttar Pradesh and don't want the two boards to merge even today".