The Hindu : Minister for Minority Welfare, a first for the State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 29, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Minister for Minority Welfare, a first for the State

By A.Jayaram

Bangalore June 28. For the first time, a minister for minorities has been appointed in the State. M.L.Ustad, one of the nine new ministers appointed on Thursday will handle the portfolio of "Minority Welfare" as a Minister of State. The other new portfolios created this time are Rural Water Supply, Town Municipal Councils and Panchayats, and Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. One of the first-time ministers, B.M.Koliwad, has been entrusted with the job of overseeing water supply to rural areas.

The creation of the new portfolios is illustrative of the ingenuity shown in giving work to the large team of ministers. Perhaps no other State in the country has a minister for minority welfare. Neighbouring Sri Lanka had a minister for its Hindu minority in the past. For the first time, the minorities are treated as a different or special group.

The question is being raised whether the appointment of a minister for Minority Welfare will render the State Minorities Commission redundant. It was the Janata Government which created the commission with N.L.Goodwala, a Hubli advocate, who lived beyond the age of 100, as its first chairman. At that time, even the Jains had been given representation on the commission. With the dropping of Veerakumar Patil from the ministry, the Jains are without representation. The tiniest of the minorities, the Parsis, have not been accommodated on the commission, although in princely Mysore they had representation in the civil service, railways and also in the academia.

Besides the minorities commission is the Minority Development Corporation which is engaged in providing financial assistance to the needy for starting enterprises. The State Minorities Commission is without a chairman for almost six months now after the passing away of the former minister, Azeez Sait, in December last. The commission has two members one of whom is D.J.Balraj, a retired senior IAS officer, and the other is a representative of the Sikhs. It is learnt that the Government wants to appoint only a Muslim as the chairman. So far, no non-Muslim has been appointed chairman of the commission. Azeez Sait had been given the status of a Cabinet minister.

Though it is not made clear in the allocation of work, the portfolio of Minority Welfare will deal with only religious minorities and not linguistic also as under Article 30 of the Constitution. In the past, the omnibus department of Social Welfare was looking after the interests of the downtrodden in all sections of society. The J.H.Patel Government had created the separate portfolio of Backward Classes and assigned it to Malikayya Guttedar. Under DMK and AIADMK rule, Tamil Nadu came to appoint ministers for Adi Dravidas. The new portfolios created in the past two decades in the State include Institutional Finance, Higher Education, Medical Education, Adult Education, Vocational Education, Textiles, Information Technology, Food Processing, Science and Technology, Environment and Ecology (which is now attached to Forests), Infrastructure Development, Civil Aviation, Agricultural Marketing, and even Women and Child Welfare. As Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde appointed a minister for Institutional Finance and assigned it to Rambhau Potdar, a former Chairman of the Legislative Council.

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