The fate of about 800 students of the Maharashtra Urdu High School in Kurla is at stake as their 16-year-old educational institute faces closure, a report said on 1 July. The school in the sprawling Kranti Nagar slum may be demolished as it falls within 10 metres of a water pipe. A Supreme Court order says structures within 10 metres of a water pipe should be cleared.
The school has now pinned its hopes on civic authorities allotting it an alternative plot and says its closure will deprive the impoverished people of the area of the only school in the locality. The BMC has already surveyed and marked the distance up to which it plans to clear the area. Last week trustees of the school discussed the issue with a select group of media-persons.
MARRIAGE REGISTRATION MANDATORY FOR ALL RELIGIONS: DELHI GOVT
The Delhi government’s rule for mandatory registration of marriages is applicable to all religions, including Muslims and Christians. “Everyone in the city, irrespective of their religion, has to get their marriage registered. Marriage registration has been made mandatory in compliance of the Supreme Court’s order,” said Dharam Pal, revenue secretary, Delhi government. The previous Congress government failed to pass a bill in this regard in the face of opposition from Muslim MLAs who had raised questions about the implications of the rule on the community.
But with President’s Rule in force in the Capital, the notification for compulsory marriage registration was issued without any major opposition. Shoaib Iqbal, an MLA from Matia Mahal – who had opposed the bill earlier – has now decided to meet the L-G over the issue though. “It is a sensitive issue and administration should not have taken such a decision. They should have implemented it through a proper channel so that everyone had a say on it.
REPORT BY MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP PAINTS BJP BLACK
BJP has made it to the ‘State of The World’s Minorities and Indigenous People 2014’ report for all the wrong reasons. The report, released by Minority Rights Group (MRG) International on 3 July, delves into BJP’s role in the Muzaffarnagar riots in UP in the run-up to the polls. According to a case study on the Muzaffarnagar riots that was part of the report, both Muslim and Jat respondents held BJP responsible for the communal violence.
“India has progressive and significant legislation and policies that protect the rights of its minorities, including national- and state-level minority commissions, SC/ST Act, and reservations for minorities in education and politics. India’s neighbours have not quite managed to secure such broad rights protection at the national level. Still, India has problems implementing its own legislation. SC/ST Acts has provisions for special courts…but few states have established such courts…India has provisions in the penal code which can be used to prosecute hate speech crimes. But widespread entrenched discrimination against minorities and gender discrimination result in the lack of will on behalf of authorities to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and hate speech against minorities,” said Nicole Girard, Asia programme coordinator, MRG and co-author of the South Asia chapter of the report.
COMMUNAL CLASHES EMERGE IN UP
The seething communal tension in Uttar Pradesh is again emerging in the form of small clashes. Post Lok Sabha elections, 13 incidents of communal clashes have left five persons dead and over 100 injured in the state. Though of low intensity, these clashes pose a serious law and order concern in the state, which is yet to recover from the scars of last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots.
Nearly half of these clashes occurred over petty disputes on use of loudspeakers in a religious place or playing of drums and use of firecrackers in processions. A series of similar incidents, after SP government came to power in 2012, had surcharged communal atmosphere which snowballed in the form of large scale riots in Muzaffarnagar.