KOZHIKODE: Stepping up their opposition to the state government’s decision to rejig the minority scholarship ratio, a meeting of Muslim organizations convened by IUML here on Sunday to discuss the issue has decided to constitute a Sachar Samrakshana Samithi (SSS) and to launch a joint agitation.
A secretariat dharna will be held on August 3 under the aegis of SSS, which will be attended by leaders of Muslim organizations. They will also meet the chief minister and submit a memorandum on the day. The meeting noted that while other states in the country implemented the recommendations of Rajinder Sachar committee, which was constituted to look into the backwardness of the Muslim community, and come up with suggestions to alleviate that, the LDF government has taken a stand of denying the benefits recommended by the committee.
The meeting unanimously demanded that the recommendations of the Sachar committee should be implemented solely for Muslims by drawing up a special scheme and other welfare schemes for minorities should be implemented on the basis of population. The meeting decided that it would give full support to implement the recommendations of various commissions constituted to look into other communities. The meeting also expressed protest against the stand by the LDF government to complicate an issue which could have been solved easily and which created a notion that the Muslim community has been illegally securing benefits.
SSS has IUML leader Syed Sadikkali Shihab Thangal as chairman and will have representatives from all Muslim organizations. Thangal said that steps would be taken to create awareness against the moves to communally disparage the demands raised by the Muslim community.
Meanwhile, Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar held talks with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the issue. Kanthapuram said that the chief minister has assured that if there were any concerns over the rejig, it would be resolved through creative steps.
