Mr. Qamarul Islam, Minister for Municipal Administration and Minority Affairs of Karnataka held a Press Conference at Hyderabad and told that Govt. of Karnataka has became the first State in India to allocate the largest budget for Minorities. For the current year, it allocated Rs.1043 crore for Minorities schemes whereas Govt. of A.P. has allocated Rs.1027 crore. The Govt. of Karnataka also waived loans upto 13th May 2013 which workout to Rs.367 crore.
Mr. Qamarul Islam told that the former Govt. had allocated Rs.400 crore for Minorities. This year the budget has been doubled and new schemes had been introduced. Financial help will be provided to the students preparing for Civil Service Examination. Under Ganga Kalyan scheme, Poor Muslims would be given Rs.2 lakh financial assistance for Agriculture and Horticulture. Earlier this was Rs.1.5 lakh. Muslims would get Rs.5 lakh as loan from banks for construction of houses. The interests of this loan would be paid by Minorities Welfare Dept. Preference has been given to repairs to Mosques and Graveyards. Since there is lack of awareness about the welfare schemes of the Govt., it has been decided to notify these schemes on the notice boards of the mosques on every Thursday so that all the Muslims should know about these schemes on Friday. A decision has also been taken to computerize all the Wakf records with in six months. Govt. has also decided to allocate Rs.1 crore at district level and Rs.50 lakh at Taluk level for the marriages of poor Muslim girls.
Mr. Qamarul Islam congratulated the C.M. of Karnataka Mr. Siddaramayaih for maintaining Law and Order situation under control.
–Siasat News