For communal harmony,empower NIC: Punchhi panel

The Justice Punchhi Commission report has opined that the National Integration Council (NIC) is an ineffective entity that must...

The Justice Punchhi Commission report has opined that the National Integration Council (NIC) is an ineffective entity that must be empowered in order to strengthen the secular fabric of the country. A suggestion to give the NIC constitutional status,however,has been rejected by the Punchhi Commission on the grounds that the Council would become prone to politicisation and would not end up including members from various walks of life.

The Commission has recommended several steps to institutionalise the workings of the NIC which has met merely 14 times in the past 46 years. It met 12 times between 1962 and 1992,the 13th meeting was held after a gap of 13 years in August 2005 and the last one held in October 2008.

Besides suggesting that it be included in the Councils charter that it meet at least once a year,preferably twice,the Commission has advised that a committee of eminent persons be set up to prepare a report on whether the NIC has been able to fulfill its objectives. Instead of being used as a forum to settle political scores,the body should be used to reach a consensus on comprehensive strategy to fight communal conflicts in society,it says.

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The Commission has proposed that the Union Home Minister be made ex officio deputy chairperson of the NIC as the Prime Minister,the ex office chairperson is unable to devote enough time to it. The NIC was set up by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 to find ways and means to combat social evils and to formulate definite conclusions in order to give a lead to the country.

The Commission has advised that a Standing Committee of state Home Ministers from six regions be set up with the MoS in the Ministry of Home as convenor. Membership of the committee,which should meet quarterly,should be on a rotational basis.