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Wajahat
Habibullah is new head of minorities' panel
Thursday February 03, 2011 10:19:19 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: Former
bureaucrat and India's first chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah Thursday took over as the new chairperson of
the National Commission for Minorities.
Habibullah will hold the office for a period of three years, said
an official of the minority affairs ministry that presides over
the minority panel.
A 1968-batch IAS officer, the former bureaucrat filled the post
lying vacant for the past five months. His predecessor Mohammed
Shafi Qureshi retired in September last year.
Soon after assuming office, Habibullah held a meeting of the panel
and also met its senior officers.
His appointment as the head of the minorities' panel comes at a
time when questions are being raised over the need for the
commission as the government is moving ahead with its plan to form
an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) - a body vested with
court-like powers to check discrimination on the basis of religion
and language.
The NCM was formed by the Indian government in 1978 to monitor and
evaluate the progress of minorities.
Habibullah said his priority would be to ensure that there was no
violation of constitutional rights granted to all citizens
including minorities.
"The objective is that the constitution is respected by all. The
constitution enjoins equal opportunities for all communities,"
Habibullah told IANS.
About the panel he heads, Habibullah said: "It has a certain
degree of authority and has in the past successfully brought
issues of importance to the government's attention."
Meanwhile, Keki N. Daruwalla also took over as a member of the
commission. With this, all the vacancies in the panel, which has a
chairman, a vice-chairman and five members, have been filled.
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