Soon after former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura took over the charge of the National Commission for Minorities as the Chairman, he started hearing the grievances of the people. Lalpura believes that solving the pending cases quickly will be a challenge for him.
In an exclusive conversation with IANS on Friday, he said, “We will work for the victims belonging to the minority community and will try to ensure that no wrong narrative is being set. Many old cases are lying pending and they will be disposed of soon,” he added.
“Since the Chairman’s seat has been lying vacant for a long time, steps will be taken to provide speedy justice to the victims at the district and state level,” Lalpura asserted.
As per the information, over 500 cases are pending before the Commission.
“We have a total of 524 complaints pending cases. Delhi has the highest number of pending cases — 187, while the incident from states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, and others are also pending, on which we will start working soon,” he noted. On the other hand, several research studies in the Minorities Commission are also yet to be completed.
Lalpura is also considering meeting as many people as possible, know their problems, and try to ensure justice, so that trust can be established among the people.
“I will personally meet people or will contact them so that minorities can have faith that they will get justice,” he elaborated.
Lalpura, who was previously associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party as a spokesperson, said: “I am sitting on this post after resigning, before that I have also paid many responsibilities. It’s not necessary to be in the BJP only, my aim is to deliver justice to the people. However, the law of the country is above all things for me.
“I want to appeal to the people that if they witness any injustice then I am with them,” he said, adding that whether it is an earlier incident — Delhi, Kanpur, Haryana, etc. –, we are with riots victims irrespective to their religion. We will look at everybody from the same angle.
Earlier, Gairul Hasan Rizvi was the Chairman of the Commission whose term ended in May 2020.
The Commission comprises seven members including the Chairman, out of which presently five posts are lying vacant. Atif Rashid is the Vice-Chairman of the Commission.