Sachar report to be implemented in full: Minister

The Centre said on Thursday that the recommendations and observations of the Sachar Committee on Muslims will be implemented fully next year.

Minorities Affairs Minister A R Antulay's remarks came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that the government was committed to the uplift of minorities.

"We will not only implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee but also its observations," Antulay told reporters after addressing an international conference of Dalits and Muslims.

"They will be implemented in toto in 2007," he said when asked about a specific time frame for their implementation.

He also spoke about plans to carry out amendments in the Wakf Act to give more powers to the Central Wakf Council.

Such an amendment, aimed at clearing Wakf properties worth thousands of crores from tresspassers, is expected to be brought about in the budget session.

In his address to the conference, the minister mounted a fierrce attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying it 'hates' the word minority.

"You were in power for six years and you did not create any ministry for minority welfare. You hate the word minority," Antulay remarked without naming the BJP.

He maintained that it was the government's key responsibilty to ensure welfare of minorities, both linguistic and religious, who he said, make up more than 30 percent of the country's population. "If minorityism does not have to be in India where else should it be in the world," he asked.