Abusaleh Shariff, member secretary of Justice Sachar Committee, has drawn Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s attention to review the Sachar recommendations. The path-breaking report on the state of Muslims in the country was submitted about five years ago. Shariff said the authority met only thrice in four years, did not consider implementing the report and has been bereft of any independent technical person despite the recent revamp. Shariff’s note to the PM was sent about 10 days ago. He has since met Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to discuss the note’s content.
Of late, there have been many indictments of mode of implementation of the Sachar report. The parliamentary standing committee on social justice and employment too had found fault with it, and had said that the ministry of minority affairs was not addressing the root of the problems highlighted in the report. It had suggested that the government should bring a law to ensure time-bound implementation.
Shariff’s note highlighted the government’s reluctance in setting up the equal opportunity commission (EOC), estimate share of flows to minority beneficiaries in major flagship programmes with separate data for Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and measure diversity in public institutes of excellence like IIM, IIT, AIIMS etc. Shariff has pointed out that banking and credit, community based polytechnics and enrolment and school continuation are the sectors that are in dire need of assessment and monitoring.