Enquiry Commission for Reservations

Mohammed Younus :

With barely one month of its six-month tenure remaining, the Commission of Enquiry established by the government to study the socio-economic conditions of the Muslim community in the State, it would be holding its first official meeting on Monday to finalise the roadmap. The commission was established on March 3, 2015 to study the socio-economic conditions of the community to take necessary steps for providing 12 per cent reservations to the deserving poor.

However, due to lack of office space and proper quorum of members the commission could not start its function during the past five months, except few meetings with officials from several departments concerned. Earlier only chairman and a member were appointed and selection of other members was not carried out until July, 2015. In the last week of July, the State government appointed two more members for the commission.

Though the intention of the government was to collect a detailed report to provide reservations, the tardy start of the commission’s work irking the community. The Muslim community elders have been demanding for the early preparation of the report but nothing has been materialised yet. The commission was allotted office space in Shakar Bhavan in July, when only one month is left for completion of the job.

Tameer e Millat State secretary Abdul Raheem Qureshi said that the government should have constituted B C Welfare Commission and procedure of giving reservation must have followed. He said, “we have to wait for the outcome of the commission’s enquiry, then only we can comment on the issue that whether it can deliver any good for the beleaguered community or not.” Enquiry Commission chairman G Sudhir, who was conferred with chief secretary rank recently, said that he would ask the government for extension to carry out the task it has been given.

                                                              -----------

Commission’s responsibilities
• Was set up on March 3, 2015 by a Government Order and was given six months’ time to give a report
•Not given an office space until July, past five months of its inception
•To gather data on socio-economic-educational conditions of Muslim community
•Take data as per the nine terms of references stipulated by the government
•Collate data procured by the different agencies, study, analyse and submit the report
•Recommend suitable steps for removing the impediments in the improvement of the overall conditions of the community                                     -----

He however, said clarity was needed whether the time of Enquiry Commission would begin after the initiation of the enquiry or from the date of inception. As part of the enquiry, the commission would collect and collate data pertaining to the Muslim community in the State from various government agencies and recommend the suitable remedy for the upliftment of the community. 

“We will have data from National Sample Survey records, government departments, various census reports, Bureau of Economic & Statistics and others besides interacting with community leaders to prepare dossier based on the terms of references given to us”, said Sudhir. Mufti Mohammed Sadiq Mohiuddin said that if the government needed the socio-economic data of the community for technical reasons, it should have gathered it as early as possible.

He said, “Muslim community in Telangana need justice in terms of social, economic and educational upliftment. Delay in the process of providing them reservations would probably result in the loss of confidence in the government.”

There are about nine different terms of references set up by the State government for the commission that include collation of data from State & central agencies, study, survey the socio economic conditions, rate of employment in private & government sectors, health care indicators and others.