The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has shot down one of the key recommendations made by the Sachar Committee to address the grievances of the minority community on an equal footing. Planned as an ombudsman to address the grievances of deprived groups, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has not found any favour at all with the Arjun Singh headed HRD Ministry, which has termed the move “undesirable” and the body as “not required”, and rejected it.

The HRD Ministry has written to the Minority Affairs Ministry, which is in the process of collecting the views of various concerned ministries on the subject of EOC, that the commission does not seem desirable as there are already several national-level bodies and panels for affirmative action. Creation of another body will only lead to a multiplicity of such organisations and duplication of functions, said an official from the MMA.

MMA secretary M N Prasad when contacted said that he was not aware if the HRD Ministry had written objecting to the EOC. “The process of getting ministerial views is on. I am not aware of the HRD Ministry writing to us and opposing it. However, there are oppositions and objections to every proposal and these are sorted out,” he said. Prasad said that the ministry would try to take a legislation on the issue to the Parliament as early as possible.

Sources say that Arjun Singh’s opposition to the EOC is strange, considering his pro-minority image. Singh, incidentally, has been out of action for nearly a month and has just started official work from his residence of late.

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