Even as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was trying to go out of the way to address issues of minorities, the action by certain officials evicting the State Minorities Commission from a Government building has raised the hackles of the community.
During the weekend holiday Government officials moved the Telangana Minorities Commission office from Raghava Sadan near Raj Bhavan to a two-bed room flat.
At a time when staff of the Minorities Commission was around the General Administration Department, officials carted away the furniture and files to the flat.
Chairman of the Minorities Commission Abid Rasool Khan reacted strongly to the move and alleged that this was a conspiracy to give a bad name to the Government and weaken the commission.
Pointing out that the Commission was shifted thrice over the last three years throwing it out of the State Secretariat, Abid Rasool Khan urged Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to order a probe and identify the culprits.
Abid Rasool Khan, who was appointed as the head of the panel in 2013 by the then Congress Government, told a media conference that he was working and trying to strengthen the commission without taking a rupee as salary and spending money from his own pocket.
He expressed suspicion that his recent letter to the Central Burau of Investigation seeking a probe into the irregularities of Waqf properties in the State may have caused this action.
Pointing out that the commission was doing a good job for the last three years, he appealed to the Chief Minister not to weaken it. Pointing out that the Minorities commission was statutory body, he demanded that it should be respected like the BC, SC and ST Commissions.
The row has erupted at a time when the K Chandrasekhar Rao Government appointed a retired IPS officer AK Khan as advisor on the minorities affairs and the term of the Sudhir Committee on the 12 per cent reservations for Muslim was extended by one year.