Change the Wheel for Minorities Welfare in AP

The state government has recently issued two GOs for ‘creation’ of commissionerate of minorities welfare under the control of minorities welfare department and for creation of posts at state and district levels. GO Ms 130 issued by minorities welfare department on December 18, 2012 points out that “the government have reviewed the functioning of the department and have felt it necessary to establish a separate commissionerate for minorities welfare at state level and also to enhance the supporting structure at the district level, to implement various schemes for the minorities and to ensure proper utilisation of funds being spent by the government for the welfare of minorities, besides co-coordinating and supervising the activities. Government hereby accord permission for creation of a commissionerate (directorate) of minorities welfare at state level head quarters under the control of minorities welfare department.” 

    

Finance department issued GO Ms 345 on December 26, 2012 according sanction for creation of 68 posts for the ‘newly created commissionerate of minorities welfare’ at state head quarters level and district level under the control of the commissioner of minorities welfare. The minorities welfare department has been directed to take further necessary action to allocate the district staff among various units and to re-distribute the subjects among the newly created staff under the control of minorities welfare department. 
    
Promptly, the issuance of the two GOs was hailed by delegations of Muslims led by Congress minority leaders who called on powers-that-be and thanked them for “their affirmative action” for minorities. Any ruling party can justifiably claim credit for executive actions of its government and the functionaries of any political party can go to town, tom-toming about their achievements. But the fact is that creation of commissionerate (directorate) of minorities welfare commissionerate now is like reinventing the wheel once again. This is because a commissionerate of minorities welfare was created as far back as 1996 through issuance of GO Ms No. 37 by the government on 13th March 1996. 
    
It was the Telugu Desam government under Nara Chandrababu Naidu that created this commissionerate as part of its ‘policy for advancement of minorities in AP’ announced on 20th February that year. Under this GO, orders were issued creating district minorities welfare offices in eight minority concentrated districts of the state to implement various schemes for the minorities and to ensure proper utilisation of funds being released by the government for the welfare of minorities, besides co-coordinating and supervising the activities of AP State Minorities Finance Corporation, AP State Wakf Board and the Urdu Academy of Andhra Pradesh. Through GO Ms 161, dated 9th July 1999, orders were issued creating district minorities welfare offices in another four minority concentrated districts in the state. This was done as part of the ‘Minorities Welfare Policy Initiatives (Roshni)’ announced by TDP government on 1st July that year. 
    
Thus, district minority welfare offices were opened in a dozen districts, namely, Guntur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Anantapur, Nizamabad, Medak, Chittoor, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, and Krishna. According to appendix A to the budget estimates 2012-13, the Minorities Welfare department has a sanctioned strength of 259, including 44 posts at secretariat level, 15 in the minorities commission and 200 at the commissionerate level. It is another fact that the commissionerate, set up in 1996, has been functioning since January 1997 from the premises of the Minorities Welfare department at the secretariat. Proposals for strengthening the commissionerate and making it a fullfledged head of department (directorate) office have been sent to the government by minorities welfare department many a times in the last 16 years. 
    
After pressure was mounted on the present government to sanction a full-fledged commissionerate, in place of the existing truncated one, fresh proposals were submitted to the government. The government issued the two GOs now, basing on the proposals made by the then secretary of Minorities Welfare department a year ago. As per this proposal, only 68 new posts have been sanctioned. 
    
Things are not going to improve since even with the additional strength, the minorities welfare commissionerate would have 268 posts. In contrast, the Social Welfare commissionerate has a sanctioned strength of 20,532 posts, followed by tribal welfare commissionerate with 19,330 posts and Backward Welfare commissionerate with 6,631 posts. These other commissionerates have field level offices upto the mandal level whereas minorities welfare commissionerate has its offices upto district level. 
    
It would have been better for the government to assess the requirements over the next 10 to 15 years and sanction field level offices at revenue division level and in the 130 minority concentrated mandals with minority population above 15 per cent.