Minorities Commission received 1,670 complaints during 2019-2020

Iqbal Singh Lalpura, the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities with Prime Minister Modi. Photo: Twitter


As many as 1,670 complaints were filed in the National Commission for Minorities during 2019-2020 from across the country. This was revealed in the annual report of the commission. The report comprises data from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020.

According to the report, out of 1,670 complaints, 816 were received from Uttar Pradesh alone, while a total of 146 complaints were received from Delhi.

Apart from this, 89 were from Maharashtra, 64 from Haryana, 57 from Uttarakhand, 52 from Madhya Pradesh, 43 from Kerala, 24 from Assam, and 27 from Bihar.

However, only one complaint each was received from Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, Goa, and Andaman-Nicobar.

As per the report, the categories of complaints received by the commission include matters related to law and order, financial matters, and the right to religion among others.

Out of the total cases, 1,019 were related to law and order. Of these, 615 cases were from Uttar Pradesh alone.

Similarly, out of the total 1,670 complaints, 1,232 were filed by the people belonging to the Muslim community, followed by 129 and 106 complaints filed by Christian and Sikh communities respectively.

Of 1,232 complaints filed by Muslims, 728 were from Uttar Pradesh, while 101 were from Delhi — which include 86 cases related to law and order. However, the figure can be attributed to the riots in the national capital during the period.

The commission also received 43 complaints from Buddhists, Parsis (5) and Jains (51), and 104 from other communities.

Former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura had been appointed chairman of the National Commission for Minorities in September. The commission’s vice-chairperson is Atif Rasheed while five-member posts are vacant, according to the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) website.
Earlier this year, the Delhi High Court had asked the Centre to explain why as many as six out of seven posts at the NCM are lying vacant since October last year. The last chairperson of the commission was Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi.
The Union government had set up the NCM under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.