By Abdul Basith, TwoCircles.net,
Elankunnapuzha [Kochi]: Kerala Revenue Minister Adur Prakash ordered actions against the Elankunnapuzha Village Officer Dhruvanath Prabhu, who attested the caste certificate issued to a Muslim Post Graduate student with a remark that ‘he doesn’t belong to any Islamic extremist groups’. The Ernakulum District Collector has been asked to seek explanation from the Village officer as well as entitled to issue a memo on that regard.
Panthakkal Muhammed – a post graduate student in chemistry at Maharajas College Ernakulum was intending to attend the UGC NET exams this year for which he required a caste certificate to prove that he belonged to the non-creamy layer. The certificate was to be issued from the Taluk office and for that he was first asked to get his application attested from the village officer specifically mentioning that he didn’t belong to the Muslim Creamy layer classes like Kachi Memon, Bohra, Navayath, Thamarkkan or Daqni. The Malipuram Masjid Mahal Committee Secretary Anvar in his letter issued from the Masjid Committee had specifically mentioned this and village officer was expected to do the same.
But when the NET aspirant received his community certificate numbered 5776/2012, it had remarks from the Village officer that – ‘Muhammed doesn’t belong to the extremist Islamic groups’.
Earlier too there were similar complaints raised against the officer but only this time it turned controversial in the state. The Village Officer’s first attestation itself contained the controversial remark and Taluk Office too was found not ready to remove it nor did they point it out to the Village Officer as Muhammed was again asked to go back to the Village Officer to obtain further clarification on whether he belonged to the creamy layer classes or not.
Muhammed, the elder son of a daily wage labourer at Wellington Island, says, “The certificate issued from the Taluk office on my resubmission of the application mentioning the exact class I belonged to, had the same remark as well, which means the officials there too found nothing wrong with it.”
In the light of recent controversies on branding educated Muslim youths as extremists, the issue has turned into a big controversy in the state because the culprit is a responsible govt officer and officers in the higher posts at Taluk Office with their awareness permitted the remarks to get into the certificate issued.
SIO marches to the Village Office and make him apologise in public
The Students Islamic Organisation [SIO] Ernakulum district Committee organised a protest march to the Village Office and the Police blocked them at the entrance. The SIO workers stood firm on their stand for action against the Village Officer and with mediation from Njarakkal CI, the Village Officer came out of the office and publicly apologised before the protesters.
The Kochi Tahsildar too reached the place soon and discussed the issue with the organisation leaders. He assured actions against the Village Officer and told that a report will be soon sent to the District Collector. It was only after this assurance the SIO members left the place. The Minority Welfare Department Directorate too has directly collected details on this regard.