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Responding to the news report,What was Plan panel member doing in a Muslim protest,Modi asks Montek at noisy meeting, Syeda Hameed,member,Planning Commission,has written...

Responding to the news report,What was Plan panel member doing in a Muslim protest,Modi asks Montek at noisy meeting, Syeda Hameed,member,Planning Commission,has written:

High-level meetings at the Planning Commission are hardly noisy. They take place in a plush conference room and good cheer and decorum is maintained by all. Yesterdays meeting with Mr. Narendra Modi was no exception. However,this is not the only inaccurate detail in the news report. It suggests that Mr. Modi demanded to know why I was present at some Muslim protest. We take strong exception to the suggestion that Mr. Modi could ever have said a thing such as this.

Here is what actually transpired:

I look after the following sectors: Minorities,Health,Women and Children,Voluntary Action Cell and Handlooms and Handicrafts and my questions to Mr. Modi related to my sectoral responsibilities.

I asked:

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*Why is it that against a decline in IMR at the all-India level of 13 points,the state witnessed a decline of only 10 points between 2001 and 2009?

*Similarly it should be noted that the MMR in the state declined by 12 points against the national average of 47 points between 2001 and 2006.

*How is the state responding to the low sex ratio (883 as against the national 927 in the age group of 0-6 years).

*I read out from the background note: The state has proposed a token provision of Rs 1 lakh only in 2010-2011 against the outlay of Rs 325 lakh in 2009-2010 under Share Capital to Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation. The corporation may face difficulty in its running programmes for the economic benefit of the minorities in the state and requested the state team to explain the ramifications of this.

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*I referred to a Jan Sunvai organised by Utthan at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth on the issue of Land Alienation,where I was a panel member. I said that no state government officials had attended despite repeated requests by the organisers and I felt that I must convey the stories of the women who had come with their testimonies to the state team. I said that the women have raised their concern over acquisition and allotment of their land for setting up mining,cement,nuclear plants and SEZ projects. Incidentally,I read both from my notes and also from an Indian Express report of February 8,2010. The report also talked about the absence of any government officials.

*Last of all,I raised the issue of 1.53 lakh children being out of school (in the age group 6-14 years). I also said that against the Muslim population of 9.1% in the state,only 4.8% of upper primary schoolchildren belong to the community. This disparity needed to be eliminated,I said,and urged the government to work on improving access. In this regard,I cited the example of Juhapura in Ahmedabad,where I cited a report to say that for a population of approximately 2.6 lakh (with 6,000 children),no government High school existed.

Then I congratulated the government for its efforts in other areas.

Other members asked questions too and Mr. Modi responded to each of them. In response to my questions,he made a few general points:

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*Social Movements and the Jan Sunvais are not to be trusted. No member of the Planning Commission or indeed no government should pay heed to such Sunvais.

*His government discouraged land acquisition,so there wasnt any problem on that front.

*He said that Juhapura had 6 schools. This was the only figure he quoted in response to my questions. He did not mention if any of them were government schools.

This forms the entire conversation.