Panel BLASTS govt over Sachar report on Muslims

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has pulled up the government for mere lip service to the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee. The panel had been set up in 2005 by the government to study the status of Muslims in India.

The committee has pointed out that the government was not attending to the "crux of the problems" brought out in the report.

In a report tabled in both the Houses of Parliament, the Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment slammed the Minority Affairs Ministry, stating "all the recommendations of the Sachar Committee are not being implemented seriously except for certain schemes like the scholarship and the scheme of grant-in-aid through Maulana Azad Foundation."

Reportage: A correspondent in Delhi

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The committee, headed by the Bahujan Samaj Party's Dara Singh Chauhan, called for introducing a legislation in Parliament for implementing the committee's recommendations, as it felt they would be implemented more forcefully "if there is a legal force behind implementing these recommendations."

The 28-member committee, with members from all parties in Parliament, also asked the government to expeditiously bring up a legislation for setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission as recommended by Justice (retired) Sachar.

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It noted that the Sachar report highlighted the deplorable socio-economic condition of the Muslim community and made specific recommendations "which if implemented in letter and spirit would go a long way in uplifting the minority community."

The committee also pulled up the Minority Affairs Ministry headed by Salman Khurshid for surrendering huge funds to the tune of Rs 587.70 crore -- meant for schemes for the upliftment of minorties -- during 2010-11. These include pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarships and computerisation of records of the state Wakf boards.

The panel called for a review of the status of the fund utilisation by states and urged the slow-performing states to send proposals well on time for full utilisation of the scholarship slots.

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