Under pressure from various quarters, including the National Commission for Minorities, the state government is expected to announce the formation of the State Minorities Commission soon. 

  According to sources, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has started holding talks within his Congress party and elsewhere on the question of the composition of the commission and selection of its chairman. The term of the last SMC ended in March 2009, a few weeks before the general election. The then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was reportedly unhappy with SMC for outsourcing inquiry into the excesses committed by the police on the Muslim youth following the bomb blasts at Mecca Masjid, Gokul Chat Bhandar and Lumbini Park in 2007. The inquiry had indicted the police and recommended measures to compensate for the illegal detention of the youth. Against this backdrop, after winning the elections, the chief minister did not show any hurry in forming the commission. His successor K Rosaiah followed YSR’s footsteps. In the meantime the NCM wrote to the CM wherein one of its six recommendations was to establish the commission.
   Meanwhile Taraq Quadri, a former member of SMC, filed a PIL in the high court in April that was taken up a few days ago. When the government pleader informed the court that the government was in the process of forming the commission, he was told to file an affidavit. Though no date has been fixed the case is expected to come up for hearing soon.
   The government is keen on forming this commission with representatives from all minority communities as the previous body didn’t have Parsi and Sikh representation.