Relax height norms for Muslims in police jobs to increase representation appropriate to 3.5% population: Jawahirullah

CHENNAI: Papanasam MLA MH Jawahirullah on Monday called upon the State government to extend height relaxations to aspirants from the Muslim community in police recruitment, to improve their representation within the force.

Participating in the debate on the demands for grants for the Home Department in the State Assembly, Jawahirullah said Muslims constitute less than one per cent of the State police force despite the existence of a 3.5 per cent reservation for the backward community.

He said many Muslim youths face rejection due to the minimum height requirement. He urged the Chief Minister to consider height relaxations for the applicants from the Muslim community, akin to those provided to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The Manithaneya Makkal Katchi leader also demanded that the State government enact special legislation to protect human rights activists. He recommended regular meetings of the Police Complaint Authority to ensure proper redressal. He recalled protests in the State against various projects and acts, like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and urged the Chief Minister to withdraw pending cases related to these protests, particularly in Madurai.

Jawahirullah urged the government to order the DGP to ensure all the police stations in the State have CCTV cameras with 18 months of storage and night vision as per the Supreme Court direction. "If any person faces human rights violations in the police stations, they should be able to access the CCTV footage," he said.