By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mysuru: The Karnataka State Minorities Commission has announced to soon set up a cell to provide legal assistance to innocent members of minority communities arrested on various charges.
Commission chairperson Balkhees Banu said the cell will be headed by a retired Judge and would provide assistance by arranging for lawyers and bearing legal expenditure.
The increased number of instances of arrests of innocent members from the minority communities, especially Muslims, by police is the main reason of such initiation by the commission, she announced during a press conference here on Wednesday.
Many innocent youth were being booked under false charges during communal violence, Banu said, adding, “The Commission will ensure that no innocent person is forced to face trouble and difficulties.”
The Commission is planning to hold communal harmony meets across Karnataka, particularly in the coastal districts, to eliminate misunderstandings among different communities, she added.
Only recently, the Commission has sought a report on the arrest of three terror suspects from Bengaluru and Bhatkal. Banu has requested the Home Department for details of these recent arrests – two of whom were arrested from Pulakeshi Nagar in Bengaluru and one from Bhaktal.
Assuring that the Commission would soon be granted judicial powers, Banu said that Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had agreed, in principle, to bestow judicial powers to the Commission that will enable it to summon officials against whom there were complaints.
In several states, not just the Minorities Commission, even Women’s Commission, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission and the Backward Classes Commission enjoy judicial powers. “When the matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister, he was surprised. He immediately agreed to ensure that the Commission gets judicial powers,” she said.
The current powers of Commission to summon are not binding on officials, Banu said, adding, with additional judicial powers, the Commission will be empowered to call for official records as documentary evidence.
She also informed that the Commission was planning to set up a research centre in the name of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Referring to ‘Bidayi’ scheme that aimed at providing financial assistance to poor Muslim women for marriage, Banu said the Commission has asked the state government to increase the funding by an additional of Rs five crore.
Pointing out that the Commission had received 543 applications under the scheme in Mysuru district, she said 189 beneficiaries have been selected, who would be provided Rs 50,000 each.
Banu, who is a Bachelor in Arts and Bachelor in Education (B.Ed), has also recently declared that the Commission would recommend to the government to fill vacant posts of teacher in government Urdu schools at the earliest.