Muslims' plea for reservations

Eluru: Muslims under the aegis of All Minority Employees' Association of Andhra Pradesh urged the West Godavari district authorities to persuade the government for implementation of reservations to Muslims in jobs and education. The leaders of the minority community met District Collector Dr G Vani Mohan at Collectorate during Monday's Prajavani programme. Minorities Welfare Society leader Mohammed Kaiser explained to the Collector on the need to implement recommendations made by Ranganath Misra Commission. He requested her to forward the memorandum to be submitted to her by the rally of 5,000 Muslims to be taken out in Eluru to project the problems confronted by them. A group of Muslim leaders�Amzad, Azeez, Omer Ali, Sadiq and Ismail Sharif� who appeared at the Collectorate appreciated efforts of the Collector in addressing the problems of Muslims. They brought the problem of Urdu teachers shortage to her notice. Responding to the requests of the leaders, Dr Vani Mohan assured to take special measures for solving problems faced by the Muslim community in the district. She also assured the representatives that their concerns on reservations would be conveyed to the Centre. She requested the leaders to inform her on any issue relating to the community as she was directly monitoring the minority welfare. She informed the delegation that funds had been released for development of Muslim graveyards. Ms Swarnalata, a resident of Venkatapuram of Eluru mandal, complained to the authorities that government sites worth Rs 10 crore were facing encroachment under the panchayat jurisdiction. She requested the Collector to use the sites for carrying out community development works. A few people from Lakshmipuram village of Pedavegi mandal requested for a special crematorium for scheduled castes. Ms Vemana Samrajyam, of Sriramnagar locality in Jangareddigudem, revealed that two Indiramma housing units were sanctioned to her daughter-in-law Kanaka Durga. She pleaded with the authorities to foil the attempts of her son Amrish to encroach the house allotted to her. Replying to different requests by people at Prajavani programme, District Joint Collector Dr T Baburao Naidu expressed concern over the trend of graveyard encroachment. He promised the people to save government lands at any cost. Officials of different government departments issued directives to their subordinates at the programme for settling issues connected to 350 representations received at the weekly programme.