New Delhi: The Equal Opportunities Commission promised by the Centre to ensure that equal chances were available to various groups was well on its way to become a reality with the committee entrusted with setting it up is likely to submit its report on February 28.

The term of the committee, which was formed to fast track implementation of Sachar Committee recommendations, would be expiring on February 29.

"We did not want to seek an extension as we are ready with the report," Committee Chairperson N R M Menon said.

The committee would submit both its recommendations on setting up the Commission and the draft copy of the Equal Opportunities Bill, which would be presented in Parliament.

The Commission would be set up on the lines of National Human Rights Commission, but would have the distinctive feature of basing its cases only on "hard evidence", he said.

The Commission would go into cases relating to all sectors like education, employment and policy making.

"Individuals cannot approach the Commission. Only groups," he clarified.

The chairperson of the commission would be a person knowledgeable in the field of equal opportunities. It can be a judge or a social scientist, Menon said, adding the process of selection would be the same as that of NHRC, where the Prime Minister heads the selection committee and the Leader of Opposition is a member.

The setting up of the EOC came as a part of the Centre's follow-up action on the Sachar Committee's report regarding discrimination against Muslims. Almost all countries, which have a pluralistic society, have commissions which look into social discriminations.

The other members of the committee are Javeed Alam, Satish Deshpande, Yogendra Yadav and Gopal Guru.
Source : PTI