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Polls in the air, UPA gets cracking on Sachar report |
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With the Left targeting the pro-Muslim credentials of the Congress on the issue of the nuclear deal with the United States, the UPA Government is taking measures to implement key recom¬mendations of the Sachar Committee on the status of Muslims. These include setting up of an Equal Opportunities Commission and a Diversity Index.
Putting the process of implementation of the Sachar Commit¬tee recommendations for the upliftment of Muslims on the fast track, the Government on Sept. 6 announced the setting up of two expert groups.
The two new committees-determining the structure and func¬tioning of the Equal Opportunities Commission and a panel for deciding the “diversity index” for the minorities-have been directed to submit their reports within three months.
A group, headed by N R Madhava Menon, will include Javed Alam, Satish Deshpande, Yogendra Yadav and Gopal Guru as its members. The Commission is expected to be political in nature and will address the issues of discrimination against the Muslims in the Government as well as the private sector.
The expert group on “diversity index” will “develop and devise an acceptable index to measure diversity in the areas of education, Government and private employment and housing,” as suggested by the Sachar Committee. It will be headed by Amitabh Kundu and would include Sugata Marjit, Abdul Kalam and Hasb Dabru as its members.
The plans in the pipeline include the development of Wakf Properties, tapping its commercial potential. The Union Minority Affairs Ministry has already written to the State Governments about the same.
Meanwhile, the Centre has written to State Governments and Union Territories, urging them to post more Muslim health work¬ers, teachers and police personnel in areas dominated by the community.
The letter, sent by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on August 30, has focused on these spheres of Government since these are the ones which have “maximum public-administra¬tion interface” and the maximum potential to generate confidence within the community, official sources said.
The department, however, admitted that the letter was more in the nature of an “advisory” since posting of personnel came under the domain of the State Governments.
The Union Ministries of Home, Health and HRD have been directed to come up with guidelines for such postings. The Home Ministry is the cadre controlling authority for the Indian Police Service but officials concede that the right to post a particular officer to a particular area is the prerogative of the State Government.
In a related development, the Congress has accused the BJP of disrupting Parliament to prevent a debate on the Sachar Com¬mittee report. The report was listed for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Sept. 5.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, talking to newsper¬sons on Sept. 5, dismissed the charge that the follow up action on the Sachar Commission report was an election-eve package for Muslims. Charging the BJP with playing politics and trying to mislead the nation, Singhvi said there was no talk of elections when the Sachar Committee was set up and when it submitted its recommendations last year.
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