Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a 50 per cent hike in the salaries of Imams and Maulanas in the state and promised them a 5 per cent increment every year. In the wake of this decision, the Haryana Waqf Board organised a felicitation ceremony at Gurugram University on Thursday (January 5) where it felicitated the Haryana CM for hiking the honorarium.
Tanzeem Aima-e-Auqaf, an organisation of the imams, said the salary hike was unprecedented and at least 800 imams working with various mosques in Haryana will benefit from this decision. Imams are paid salaries by Haryana Waqf Board, which gets grants from the state government and also generates income from its own properties.
Zakir Hussain, the administrator of the Haryana Waqf Board, said that imams will be paid between Rs. 14,000 and Rs. 16,000 as honorarium per month. “The provision of a 5% yearly hike in imams’ salary has never happened anywhere in India,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, CM Khattar said, “Every possible effort is being made to increase brotherhood in Haryana. Considering the demands of Imam organisations, we have increased the honorarium of Maulanas and Imams. The demands were not taken into consideration for the past several years.”
Addressing the media after the programme, chief minister Khattar said, “Imams can play a crucial road in improving education and health facilities in areas such as Mewat. We are also working on creating more infrastructure and development in this region. The imams have also played an important role in the success of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign in Mewat as well as the Swachh Bharat campaign,” he said.
Khattar went on to say that the government is striving to ensure that temple priests are also paid a minimum wage by the organisations that employ them. “A board has been formed by the government to oversee this aspect and also for the welfare of this section,” he said.
