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May 14, 2008
Minority
Welfare Must Not be Tied
to Religion of Officials
By Rajeev Ranjan Roy
New Delhi
With the government gearing to deploy officials from the minorities
in areas they dominate, community leaders have said that welfare of
minorities should not be linked to the "religion of bureaucrats" and
sought better implementation of welfare measures for their economic
and educational betterment.
"The government must ensure effective implementation of welfare and
other programmes meant for the minorities. A proper monitoring
mechanism should be put in place if the government really intends to
help them," S.Q.R. Ilyas, spokesperson of the All India Muslim
Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), told IANS.
Reliable government sources told IANS that the central government
had decided to send officials from the minority communities to areas
of their concentration to expedite the implementation of schemes
meant for them.
The sources said the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had
sent a communiqué to the ministries of health, education and home
affairs seeking detailed guidelines to post officials from minority
communities in pockets where they are in a majority.
Ilyas said that merely sending Muslims or officials from other
minorities would not serve much purpose unless there were serious
attempts to implement recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar
Committee and the Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission.
"The welfare of minorities should not be linked to the religion of
officials or bureaucrats. Justice Sachar does not belong to a
minority community but came out with comprehensive suggestions to
uplift the minorities," said Ilyas.
"A move to post Muslim officials in Muslim-dominated areas can be
counter productive as well. Instead the government should implement
the existing schemes effectively," Niaz Faruqui, secretary of the
Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Hind (JUH), told IANS.
The government has earmarked Rs.10 billion for 2008-09 as the
budgetary plan allocation for the all-round development of
minorities, who account for over 18 percent of the country's total
population.
"How can the government ensure that Muslim officials will take the
benefits of development to people's doorsteps? There is a need to
adopt a holistic approach," one member of the National Commission
for Minorities told IANS while requesting anonymity.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up the Justice Rajinder Sachar
Committee in March 2005 to evaluate the socio-economic and
educational status of the minorities, in particular Muslims.
In its report, the committee brought out widespread illiteracy and
poverty among minorities and recommended among other things setting
up an autonomous assessment monitoring authority (AMA) for the
schemes meant for minorities.
The Justice Mishra-led National Commission for Religious and
Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM), in its report of May 2007, favoured
inclusion of Dalit coverts into Scheduled Castes (SC) fold.
Justice Mishra recommended a sub-quota of 8.4 percent for minorities
within the 27 percent OBC quota and reservation to Dalit minorities
by including the converts within the 15 percent SC quota.
May 14, 2008
IANS | Top
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