MUMBAI, 8 September 2007 — Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh disclosed here on Thursday that the state government would send revised proposals to the federal government relating to compensation for the 1992-93 communal riot victims.
Deshmukh who revealed this information to the visiting delegation from the National Minority Commission (NMC) led by its Chairman Mohammed Shafi Qureshi, further said that the compensation would be on the lines of what was given to the victims of the 1984 riots in New Delhi and Gujarat riots. The chief minister also assured the minority panel delegation that the Maharashtra government was fully committed to its election manifesto for the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report.
Asked about the action on the implementation of the Srikrishna report, Deshmukh said that the state government had appointed expert lawyers to initiate action on the policemen indicted in the panel report and that special fast track courts were being set up to expedite the trial of pending cases.
Speaking about the welfare measures taken for Muslims, Deshmukh told the delegation that the state government has permitted the maximum number of Urdu schools and that there would be at least one minority community member in various government committees.
The commission which met Deshmukh presented him with its report and recommendations. “Though our recommendations are not binding on the government, it has taken positive steps in the past on our recommendations. In fact, the federal government has announced a special package for the people displaced due to Gujarat riots,” said Zoya Hasan, a member of the commission.
A day earlier to the meeting with the state chief minister, the delegation of the NMC had to face the ire of the Muslim community at a public hearing in Mumbai. The hearing was interrupted several times by more than 200 members of the Muslim community who expressed their anger against the state government’s apathy to their demand, and the government’s failure to arrest those indicted in the Mumbai riots of 1992-93 in the Srikrishna Commission report.
The aggressive stand taken by the Muslim community members at the hearing was so tense that the situation at the hearing went out of control several times.
Objections were also raised when Congress legislator Naseem Khan was allowed to speak by the NMC panel. Minority representatives opposed vociferously, stating that no one from the government should be allowed to speak at the public hearing.
Qureshi told the minority representatives: “We are aware of the situation post-Mumbai riots in the state, but the community must not lose hope.” Apart from complaining about the nonimplementation of Srikrishna Commission report, the nearly 130 city Muslims attending the meet also registered their protest against issues plaguing them. These included the state’s apathy toward its education, discriminatory treatment by police and lack of civic amenities in Muslim-dominated areas like Mankhurd and Bandra East.
“That we should be made to demand our basic constitutional right to justice from the government is a matter of shame,” said social activist Zeenat Shaukat Ali Sheikh. “Why does the rule of equality not prevail?”
Muslim Front leader Farid Batatawala demanded action against the police officials responsible for killing of Muslims in Hari Masjid and Suleman Usman Bakery during the 1992-93 riots, while advocate Nasreen Sheikh from Naya Nagar in Mira Road, wanted a government school in her area, as “the exorbitant fee of private schools is not affordable by many in our area.”
Some complained about the lack of Urdu medium schools and shortage of funds and teachers in the existing ones.
The commission assured the minorities representatives that it would take up the issues raised by the representatives and place it before the state government with its recommendations.
