Gujarat minorities, 11.5% of state, failing to utilise govt schemes, blame poor governance

By A Representative
The Gujarat-based civil rights group Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), in a letter to Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, has regretted that that the absence of a minorities department in the state is adversely impacting the administration of different state agencies that are meant to cater to the needs of minorities.
Especially referring to how three different state agencies -- Gujarat Waqf Board, Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation and Gujarat Haj Committee – are operating under separate government departments, MCC convener Mujahid Nafees said in his letter, it would be advisable to place them under a new minority affairs department.
Today, the Wakf Board is administered by the Legal Department, the Haj Committee is administered by the General Administration Department, and the the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment implements the Centre-sponsored Scholarship Scheme, 15-point programme as well as the schemes of Minority Finance and Development Corporation.
“From the administrative point of view and for the convenience of the people, if all the institutions created for minority affairs are administered under the auspices of a single department, the administration and the general public will also be facilitated and a specific budgetary allocation of money can be made”, the letter said.
Due to lack of a single nodal government department, Nafees claimed, “11.5% minorities of Gujarat including Muslims, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews etc. are deprived of concrete development works.”
Insisting that this could be done by forming a separate minority affairs department on lines of the Government of India’s Minority Affairs Ministry as also several other states, Nafees, who has sent copy of the letter to the Gujarat Chief Secretary and the Leader of the Opposition, demanded, this should done on “immediate basis.”

Beyond the 'silent relocation' narrative in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts

By Dr. Mohammad Asaduzzaman* In recent years, a narrative has emerged from the rugged and forested terrain of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), portraying the region as the site of a “silent relocation” — a mass forced migration of Bangladesh’s non-Muslim ethnic communities into neighboring India and Myanmar.

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

Ram, Bam and Bengal: Memories of a Left turn toward the Right

By Rajiv Shah The BJP ’s massive electoral win in West Bengal is being interpreted across political persuasions — except, of course, by the BJP itself — as the result of the alleged deletion of around 90 lakh voters from the electoral rolls during the controversial intensive revision process. This may well be true, given my own experience in Gujarat regarding the shoddy manner in which electoral revisions have often been conducted. In West Bengal, there also appeared to be a political angle to the exercise. But I am not interested in discussing that here, as enough has already appeared in the media on the subject.

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