National Commission for Minorities seeks Centre’s help to set up investigation cell

NEW DELHI: Citing lack of resources to handle complaints, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has sought the Centre’s assistance to set up a dedicated investigation cell. The investigation cell, which is a part of the NCM’s annual report for 2016-2017, will be on the lines of special cells in other statutory bodies such as the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. NCM, headed by Ghayorul Hassan Rizvi, stated that setting up the cell would not be an expensive affair and can be done within a budget of `2 crores
per annum.

“At present, NCM does not have any investigation cell for helping the commission in finding the truth of allegations contained in the petitions filed before it...It is worth mentioning that such a dispensation exists in the National Commission for Scheduled castes,” says the report, a copy of which is with the New Indian Express.

The report also cites statistics on the complaints received by it in the year 2016-2017.  It received a total of 1,647 complaints in 2016-2017. Law and order issues and complaints from Muslims topped the list.
The complaints ranged over a variety of issues, including discrimination in educational institutes to not being allowed to exercise religious rights. More than 74 per cent of the total number of complaints (1,231) came from Uttar Pradesh.

There are six notified minorities in the country which are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains.   

The annual report also states that it has rejected the minority status demand by Vedic Brahmins, Sindhis and Codavas, saying it will lead to “fragmentation” of the Hindu community. The request for minority status was made by the World Brahman Organisation and Purbouttar Bahubhashiya Brahmin Mahasabha.