No plan to accord minority status to more communities

The government has no plan to accord minority status to more communities at present, the Lok Sabha was informed today. "No madam," Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in a written reply. He was asked whether government proposes to accord the status of minority to some other communities also. Naqvi said, the government has so far notified six communities -- Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. He said there is no specific function conferred under Section 9 of NCM Act to identify any community as a minority.