‘Reconstitution of Minorities Commission fails to address concerns’ 

HYDERABAD:AS the state government announced the appointment of Minorities Commission with a chairman and seven members, varied apprehensions and concerns were raised by people with regard to the delay in formation of the Commission and also the non-representation of some minority communities.
Abid Rasool Khan, former chairman of the Commission, expressed concerns over several grievances of minorities that have gone unaddressed because of the delay in the reconstitution of the body, which looks into grievances of those belonging to religious minorities.

“The commission is being reconstituted one-and-half years after I left the post of its chairman. In the lapse of time, justice to several  serious cases like rapes, murders and discrimination against minorities have  been delayed or the cases have been left unaddressed in between,” he told Express.He recalled the case of a minor girl from Nizamabad who was  raped who was on the verge of receiving ex gratia during his tenure but was not because of the term of the commission was ending abruptly.  Following the end of the term, the prospects of its reconstitution were  mired in complications because of a tug-of-war between the government and Khan over the body’s tenure.

“In the absence of the body, the  regulation for the protection of minorities from communal threats also did not see the light of the day. Moreover, there has been no  transparency in Minorities Welfare department budget expenditure and  accounts in the absence of the commission,”he said.Among those appointed for the new commission are Mohammad Qamaruddin as chairman, Rajarapu Pratap as vice  chairman and Md Arshad Ali Khan, Vidya Sravanthi, Gusty Noria, Bommala  Kattaiah as other members.    

Meanwhile, minorities rights  activist Ilyas Shamshi criticised the absence of representation from  religious minority community of Jains and Buddhists in the new appointments. He also said that the step of reconstituting the  commission is a step to appease minorities.

“It would have been better if the government would  have lived up to the claims in its election manifesto which promised  increasing reservation in jobs and education for backward Muslims to 12  per cent. It would have also been more rational to form the commission  after the next state elections,” opined Shamshi.