Muslims subjected to police atrocities: NCP

Mumbai, July 23 (UNI) With nearly two years to go for the next Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, NCP's Maharashtra unit today admitted that the police had committed atrocities against Muslims and promised that confidence building measures would be taken up soon.

Drawing a plan to woo the Muslims ahead of the polls, the party has also decided to launch a nationwide agitation to demand implementation of the Justice Sachhar Committee's report and set up a foundation with a corpus of Rs five crore to fund the education of economically-backward Muslim students.

Addressing a news conference here, party general secretary Tariq Anwar admitted that police atrocities against Muslims was also a cause of concern and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who is also the NCP president, had directed Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil to look into the complaints of the Muslim community and ensure that confidence-building measures are being taken by the police.

A suggestion has come that the practice of peace committees be revived to maintain dialogue with the social activists and local admistration.

To a question whether the party feels that Mr Patil, who holds the Home portfolio, has been a failure, Mr Anwar said ''Instead of dubbing somebody failure, you should appreciate that steps were being taken to rectify loopholes.'' Mr Anwar said a meeting was held yesterday by Mr Pawar at the Sahaydri Guest house, which was attended by Mr Patil, DGP Dr P S Pasricha and other high ranking police officials. In the meet, Mr Pawar held detailed discussions on the police's general attitude towards Muslims and spoke about the need for neccessary corrective steps.

Giving details of a series of meetings during the last week between Mr Pawar and Muslim leaders from the party and social activists from the Muslim community, he said the meetings were held with a view to examine the burning issues related to Muslims and suggest ways and means and take immediate effective remedies in light of recommendations made by Sachhar committee.

Mr Anwar said Mr Pawar had told the Muslim community that findings of the Sachhar Committee were an eye opener, which had exposed the baseless propoganda of 'appeasement' unleashed by fundamentalists.

''Implementation of the report is in national interest because no country can hope to progress if it leaves behindd 180 million of its population. Mr Pawar has advocated for immediate remedial action,'' he added.

He said a special fund of Rs five crore under Maharashtra NCP Muslim Education and Welfare Foundation will be set aside towards supporting economically-backward Muslim students.

Mr Anwar said in the meeting, issues related to minority status of educational institutes was also discussed. The Muslim leaders pointed out to Mr Pawar that the existing GR-issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) for obtaining minority status to minority educational institutes causes undue hardship and hassles to the minority community and has to be reviewed. Mr Pawar assured to discuss the issue with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

The NCP chief also assured that immediate steps would be taken to constitute the 'Maharashtra State Urdu Academy', a long-pending demand, and said a 'Urdu Ghar' will be established.

UNI