By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Four months after it submitted the report, the government on Wednesday said it has sought views of different ministries and the NITI Aayog on the findings of the Kundu Committee.
“The recommndations of the Committee are overarching covering the policies and programmes of other Ministries / Departments also and the views of the Ministries / Department concerned are required to make appropriate decisions on these recommendations. Accordingly, all Ministries / Departments and NITI Aayog have been requested to give their views / comments on the recommendations of the Committee. After receiving (these views, added), appropriate decision would be taken,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister for Minority Affairs, told Lok Sabha.
Dr. Najma A Heptulla (file photo)
Naqvi’s statement came in reply to a question by Asaduddin Owaisi, Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Musalimeen leader, about the Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee – popularly known as Kundu Committee.
The Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Professor Amitabh Kundu of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi primarily to evaluate the process of implementation of decisions taken by the government of India on the recommendations of Sachar Committee and to assess the efficacy of the Prime Minister’s 15 point programme. The Kundu Committee was also expected to recommend interventions and corrective measures in policies and programmes, Naqvi said.
The Committee submitted its Report on October 9, 2014.
Under the garb of what is it doing with the recommendations, the government, however, evaded giving clear answers to Owaisi’s questions if Muslims continued to be left out of both government jobs and urbanization wave and whether the Committee had also found that the 15 point programme was plagued by fund shortage.
Incidentally, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has also questioned the very basis of the Kundu Committee.
Reportedly, as per its internal document, the Ministry said the Committee analysed the condition of merely Muslims rather than minorities and, even in that, did an incomplete analysis using outdated data to evaluate effectiveness of the Ministry’s programmes.
Kundu, who said he had not heard anything formally about it from the government, justified Committee’s focus on Muslims saying its mandate was to look into post-Sachar issues and Sachar Committee’s focus was on Muslims, the most socially vulnerable community that comprises 80 % plus among minorities. He, however, agreed the Committee could not get latest data but was able to include it up to 2011-12 from the National Sample Survey (NSSO) data.
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Govt questions basis of Kundu Committee report; Kundu says not heard from the govt yet