NDA has worked with ‘complete honesty’ for development of minorities, says Naqvi

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday asserted that the NDA government, which marks its third anniversary in the month of May, has worked with “complete honesty” for the development of all communities, including minorities.

The Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs said the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh will not allow any “conspiracy of anarchy” to dominate the party’s commitment towards inclusive growth, according to a statement.

Naqvi though did not elaborate on the “conspiracy”.

“We have worked with complete honesty to ensure that the fruits of development reached the last person in the chain through our commitment to ‘Antyodaya’ in the last three years.

“This has benefited the minorities equally as well,” the statement quoted him as saying while addressing a conference on education for minorities here.

Underlining the importance of education in bringing the minorities into the mainstream, Naqvi listed the initiatives undertaken by his ministry in this regard.

These include the establishment of five “world class” educational institutions for the communities and the ‘T-3: teacher, tiffin and toilets’ scheme to boost the literacy rate among the minorities.

Naqvi said his ministry aimed at commissioning the institutions next year and has proposed a 40-per cent reservation for girl students in them.

Stating that the government had allotted Rs 4,195.48 crore to his ministry for the current fiscal, he said over 70 per cent of the funds would be utilised for educational empowerment of and job-oriented programmes for the minorities.

Naqvi said the Centre had set a target of offering scholarships to about 35 lakh students in the current financial year.

Additionally, it will impart employment-oriented training to more than two lakh youth from the minority communities.

He said his ministry had approved more than 20 Gurukul-type (residential) schools in the country.

As regards Uttar Pradesh, the Union minister said the government would launch various welfare schemes for the minorities in the state.

These would include construction of multi-purpose community centres, sadbhavna mandaps in each of the districts, toilets in 15,000 madrasas, over 20 job-oriented skill development centres and various basic infrastructure development programmes.