New Delhi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the government today cleared a proposal for setting up the much-awaited Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), a statutory body to check discrimination of minority communities in jobs and education.
The Justice Sachar Committee, which went into the socio-economic backwardness of Muslims, had recommended setting up of such a panel. The proposal got the nod of the Union Cabinet today.
EOC will also deal with grievances like denial of accommodation or buying rights to minorities in housing societies.
The recommendation for setting up of EOC was made during UPA-I itself and the Minority Affairs Ministry had begun the process to establish an omnibus body that could include all sections as soon as the UPA II government came to power.
A jumbo Group of Ministers, chaired by A K Antony, was set up to look into the matter as disputes arose about the location and powers of the panel with various other national commissions and ministries complaining that the proposed mandate of EOC would be encroaching upon their mandate.
The GoM had later mandated that EOC will deal exclusively with minorities.
