Calcutta, Sept. 17: The CPM today geared up to address the grievances of Muslims with a “concrete action plan” and counter the Opposition campaign on Bengal’s poor record in minority welfare.

An extended meeting of the party state unit’s minority cell today decided to prepare a status report on the Muslim community based on inputs from district units.

The government would be asked to declare its action plan after Puja so that the Left Front is able to make it part of its campaign even in case of an early election.

The leaders were hopeful that the anti-CPM campaign among Muslims over in Nandigram would be neutralised by their anti-America stand on the nuclear deal.

The party will take on the Congress by criticising the Centre for its “delay” in implementing the Sachar Committee’s recommendations.

The report, however, had shown how poorly the Bengal government fared in minority uplift. Muslims form 27 per cent of the state’s population but get only 2 to 4 per cent of government jobs, it said.

Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, minority welfare minister Abdus Sattar, school education minister Partha De and CPM legislators from the community attended the meeting chaired by Mohammad Amin, the Citu general secretary and convener of the cell.

The chief minister did not attend the meeting because of other preoccupations and state CPM secretary Biman Bose was not well.

Many at the meeting wanted job reservation for Muslim OBCs and Dalits. “The central party leadership has already demanded it in the light of the Sachar recommendations. We should implement the same in Bengal and score a point over the Congress,” a minister told The Telegraph.

He said party general secretary Prakash Karat had admitted that “though Muslims in Bengal have benefited because of land reforms, their presence in government service was low”.

The Sachar panel had also revealed the dismal state of education among Muslims.

The CPM leaders today criticised school education ministers — past and present — for failing to set up schools in minority-dominated areas.

The failure to include madarsas in the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan also came under fire.

Talks were held on how to spend the funds for Muslim-dominated blocks — 15 per cent of all departments’ budget allocation according to central guidelines.

Education, health, employment and housing were identified as priorities. A move is afoot to raise the minority welfare department’s budget of Rs 17 crore to around Rs 200 crore.