Gehlot government allocates Rs 98.55 crore for development schemes for minority community

Sticking to the promises made by it in the 2018 Assembly election’s manifesto, the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan has come out with a generous allotment of Rs 98.55 crore for various development schemes for the minority community.

A revised proposal moved by the Minority Affairs Department was approved by Chief Minister Gehlot. This sum would come from a corpus of Rs 100 crore set up by the Gehlot government for the inclusive development of the minority community.

Minority Affairs Minister Saleh Mohammed said that the Congress government in the state was committed to the welfare of the minority community of which Muslims are the biggest component with a population of 70 lakh or about 9.7 per cent out of the state’s estimated population of 8.50 crore.

The highest population of Muslims is in Alwar district where about 15 lakh Muslims, mostly from the Meo community, live, followed by Ajmer where their population is about 13 lakh.

They are followed by Sikhs who number about eight lakh and the Christians who are about a lakh in number.

A major chunk of the fund allotment has gone to infrastructure development in minority-dominated settlements in the state. A total of Rs 44 crore would be spent under this head.

With this development, the minority community which suffered heavily during the BJP rule in the state would be benefitted through skill development, education and also through social upliftment and employment.

Eventually, the largest beneficiary of the minority welfare schemes are the Muslims and according to the revised proposals, it has been ensured that education has been given high priority by the government. Rs 21.80 crore has been provided for opening an English medium school exclusively for the minority community. This school which will be residential will be set up in Jaipur. The focus is on providing minority community students with knowledge of English and another foreign language. Thus Rs 2 crore would be provided for training in English and another foreign language.

The scheme also provides for Rs 58 lakh for developing e-study rooms in 15 government minority schools. Rs 2 crore has been provided to Maulana Azad University at Jodhpur for setting up a research cell.

The state government under its regular development plan approved 21 schools for girls from the minority community. It gave merit-cum-means scholarships worth Rs 27.41 crore to them and Rs 10.09 crore were disbursed as merit-cum-means scholarships to post-matric students.

The state government also provided Rs 14 crore as loans to the minority community students to pursue their studies. Rs 39.61 crore was provided for the development of madarsas.

The state government would provide Rs 5 crore as interest subsidy on loans under Indira Gandhi Urban Credit Card Scheme. It also provides Rs 5 crore for building walls on Waqf properties that often face encroachments from the community itself.

Meanwhile, Khanu Khan Budhwali has been elected uncontested to the Rajasthan Muslim Waqf Board as chairman for a five-year tenure. He is the first person to be elected as its chairman for the second consecutive time. He was first elected as chairman in 2019. The chairman of the Waqf board enjoys the status of a Minister of State.

Budhwali said the state has some 18,000 listed properties under the Waqf board and in terms of land, it is the riches board of the state. Yet, the Waqf Board has no adequate income to pay salaries to its staff.

The Board has no adequate income though some 7000 properties have been given on rent and out of this 2500 properties are in rent in Jaipur itself. The rent earned is spent by three local district level committees or for fighting various legal cases that are pending for over half a century.

Budhwali said the Rent Act is not enforceable on Waqf properties and thus they do not earn adequate rent. He said efforts would be made to clear Waqf properties from all encroachments.

Rafeeq Khan, a Congress MLA, said efforts would be made to earn adequate interest from the various properties and create a corpus of Rs 100 crore that would be used for development.