Popular Front to Hold Parliament March for Muslim Reservation on Mar. 18

Bhopal, March 03: (Pervez Bari) The Popular Front of India, (PFI), has demanded the Union government to take every possible step to control price rise.

A Press release issued by K. M. Shareef, General Secretary of PFI, said that in its National Executive Council,(NEC), meeting held at Deccan House in Bangalore on Feb 28 and March 1 the demand was made.

The Press release said :”Though the government has been reiterating its commitment to curb price rise, we could not see any effective measures taken by the government to fulfill it. The budget presented by the Union Finance Minister disappointed the common people. It will further escalate the price of essential commodities The budget also reflected the government’s commitment towards safeguarding the interests of neo-liberals and corporate.

Shareef said the National Executive Council has decided to organize a “Parliament March” in New Delhi on March 18 as part of the two months long “National Campaign for Muslim reservation”. The National Campaign for Muslim reservation has received overwhelming support from the masses and Popular Front has been able to mobilize people for reservation to minorities.

“Popular Front NEC reiterates its demand to the UPA Government to declare 10 per cent reservation to all Muslims all over India both Central Government and Institutions in the light of Justice (Retd.) Ranganath Mishra Commission report in the ongoing Parliament session. Popular Front also condemned the BJP propaganda against Muslim reservation. Reservation is a constitutional right and various high level government committees have confirmed the backwardness of Muslim community and proved that Muslim community deserves reservation”, the release stated.

The NEC also decided to organize a “School Chalo” (Go To School) national campaign to ensure that all students go to school up to secondary level. Popular Front has been conducting “School Chalo” Campaign prior to school admissions every year in various parts of the country and it has received encouraging results. Various long term programmes like developing selected villages as “Sarva Siksha Gram” and “Adopt a student” will be initiated as part of the campaign.

Popular Front NEC has asked the Government of India to withdraw the recent notification issued by Ministry of Home Affairs whereby in the name of a registration of citizen and issue of national identity cards, the minorities in Assam are being denied citizenship and are persecuted by concerned authorities, the release added.

The meeting was presided over by Popular Front Chairman E.M. Abdul Rahiman. General secretary K.M Shareef presented the reports. E Abubaker, A Saeed, Maulana Usman Baig, Dr. Mahboob Shariff, Sheikh Dahlan Baqavi, M A Jinnah and V.P Nasruddin attended the meeting. (pervezbari@et.net)