Sachar's suggestions to be enforced in toto: Govt

The observations of the Sachar Committee on Muslims would be implemented along with its recommendations, that too "in toto," Minorities Affairs Minister AR Antulay said today.

This would be ensured in 2007, Antulay said on the sidelines of an international conference on Dalits and Muslims, organised by UPA leader Ramvilas Paswan.

This means that the debate on quotas for Muslims - on which the Sachar panel has collated opinion and not any concrete suggestion - will be reopened.

Also, a host of initiatives, to principally target Muslims, will be taken. These include steps like Muslim-concentration constituencies being reserved for scheduled castes and constituencies with low Muslim but high SC population remaining unreserved.

The committee has observed that scheduled castes and tribes have "definitely reaped the advantages of targeted government and private action supporting their educational progress."

It has suggested that Muslim bidi workers, tailors and mechanics need to be given social safety nets and the low Muslim presence in professional and managerial cadre, both private and public, needs to be beefed up.

The committee has observed that Muslim regular workers are the most vulnerable with no written contracts and social security benefits and get lower wages in both public and private jobs. It has suggested special steps like skill development and provision of credit for the large number of Muslim self-employed.

Amendments to the Wakf Act to give more powers to the Central Wakf Council were also on cards, Antulay said. The amendments, aimed at clearing Wakf properties worth thousands of crores from trespassers, is expected to be brought in the Budget session.

In his address, the minister mounted a fierce attack on the BJP, saying, "You were in power for six years and you did not create any ministry for minority welfare. You hate the word minority."

He said ensuring the welfare of linguistic and religious minorities, who made up more than 30 per cent of the country's population, was the government's key responsibility.