Kerala
govt finally decides to issue minority certificates
By Abdul
Basith MA, TwoCircles.net,
Thiruvananthapuram: The Supreme Court is yet to
decide on 4.5 percent sub quota for Minorities under the 27 percent OBC quota
in the central educational institutions and jobs. The minorities, chiefly Muslims
in Kerala were fortunate enough to overcome a major hurdle in their way to
obtain the sub quota reservations as the Kerala Revenue Department finally
decided to issue separate minority certificates according to a format suggested
by the Kerala Minority Welfare Department [MWD].
The minority students from Kerala appearing for
IIT, IIM exams last April had encountered difficulties in applying for this
reservation benefits because the state only had a creamy layer, nativity or
community certificate to be sent in along with their applications. None among
these were quite adequate an evidence before the central govt institutions to
prove that they belonged to a minority community of the state because,
according to the 1992 National Commission for Minorities act, section 2C - the
notified minority communities of a particular state like the Christians,
Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees should submit a minority certificate
issued by the state govt in specific to obtain special reservation benefits in
the central govt jobs and institutions.
Though the Minority Welfare Department of Kerala
under its director Dr P Nazeer was pressing on the necessity of formatting such
a certificate to help out the minority job aspirants and students, it often
went off as an unheard call. He contacted all 14 District collectors of the
state with this demand by sending in them copies of the 1992 Minority Act, but
they replied saying that it is just an Act and it requires a further
notification to process. He immediately took care to send in the 1993
notification of this act to all these District Collectors and Tahsildars.
Dr P Nazeer prepared the format for the certificate
in his own laptop and luckily the Revenue Department of the state with the
consent of the Revenue Secretary has sent in the orders to the District
Collectors, Land Revenue Departments, and Tahsildars, along with an approval
from State Minority Secretary to issue minority certificates to those belonging
to the minority communities of the state. The order has been passed and the
certificate format too has been finalised according to the suggestions of the
MWD.
This has been a major step towards the emancipation
of these marginalised sections of the state because until now though the Centre
was seen announcing reservations for the minorities there was no specific
system to make it available to the minority communities of the state, because
Kerala is yet to have a minority act of its own and the state was not issuing
any certificate in specific to prove that these sections belonged to a minority
community.
