CUTTACK: Muslim divorcees have again taken to agitation over the inordinate delay in providing maintenance allowance to them by the Orissa Board of Wakf.
As part of a four-day dharna in front of the Cuttack Collectorate, the divorcees on Monday staged a demonstration pressing for immediate release of maintenance amount to those, who have got decrees from the courts, and demanding action against the Wakf Board authorities for ‘deliberately’ withholding the payments. The women under the Talaki Mahila Sahayata Samiti have sought the intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and directions to the Board to implement the court orders.
Around 546 divorcees have obtained decrees from the courts and are eligible for the monthly maintenance of ` 400 under the Muslim Women Protection Rights on Divorce Act, 1986.
Though the State Government has made a provision of ` 44.35 lakh in the 2011-12 Budget for the purpose not a single penny has been released by the Wakf Administrator M Osatullah in favour of the beneficiaries, they alleged.
They also stated that despite issuance of warrants by the SDJM court against the Wakf administrator for violating the order and not executing the decrees, no action has been taken by the police. “The administrator should be immediately removed and steps taken to constitute the full Board with at least 50 per cent representation of women,” Samiti secretary Mahe Afroze Begum said.