Poor working conditions in state minority panels

New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) Concerned over the poor working conditions in the state minority panels, the National Commission for Minorities was drafting a uniform model for these bodies .

Members of the state units of NCM were poorly paid and illequipped to carry out their job. Moreover, some states had members in excess while some were short of staff.

In states like Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, they were drawing a salary not more than Rs 4000 and were not provided any vehicle.

At present different states have different structure and composition which was not in conformity of their requirements.

So the National Commission feels that a model Act was needed to be enforced in all states, senior member of the NCM Harcharan Josh told UNI.

The aim was to equip the State Minorities Commission finacially and in terms of infrastructure so that their members could work more efficienctly, said Mr Josh.

He said the condition of state minorities commission member was pathetic as compared to those NCM whose memebrs enjoying the rank of the Minister of State.

''They were paid somewhere between Rs 3000 to 4000 and given just bus passes to travel for their official work. In this situation it was not expected of them to do their work efficiently,'' he said.

Mr Josh said that currently only 15 states had minority commissions. These are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Assam and Manipur.

Mr Josh said the NCM was pursuing the matter with the state governments to set up the panel of they have none.

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