Kolkata, India - Jains in West Bengal have been declared as a minority community.
The state Legislative Assembly today passed the West Bengal Minorities Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2007, declaring the community as a minority based on religion.
The bill was passed by voice vote after a debate.
Replying to the debate, Minister for Minority Affairs Abdus Sattar referred to the demand by an opposition member for reservation for the minorities in state government jobs and said that quota was not enough.
Besides, he said there was a court case in Andhra Pradesh over the issue.
On the Rizwanur Rehman case, Sattar said the state government was for a full-fledged enquiry.
He said the CBI enquiry had revealed an uncle of Rizwanur who is a Trinamool Congress worker had taken money.
Sattar said CPI-M legislators had never been called by the CBI in the Rizwanur case.
He also refuted the charge by an opposition member that minorities had suffered in Nandigram.
Sattar said there was no complaint of torture from the members of the minority community to the State Minority Commission, adding had there been any, the panel members would have definitely visited Nandigram.
He claimed unlike in other states, minorities were safe in West Bengal under the Left Front regime.