The Congress is leaving no stone unturned to put up a fight against BJP strongman Narendra Modi in the 2014 elections. With an eye on the minority votebank, the UPA government has announced a slew of measures to woo them.
Armed with the report of the standing committee of the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities’ Education (NMCME), the Ministry of HRD is preparing a road map to set up two schools like Navodaya Vidyalayas and two girls’ hostels, besides providing 100 per cent grants to state governments for setting up model degree colleges in 90 Minority Concentration Districts.
Sources said the ministry is also awaiting the recommendations of the sub-committees of the NMCME on various issues like promotion of Urdu and enhancing compatibility amongst minorities through knowledge of English, to address the problem of availability of Urdu speaking teachers. .
As far as the reservation is concerned, the HRD Ministry had issued directives for reserving 4.5 per cent for Muslims within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs. Accordingly, IITs announced reservations under the minority quota in 2012 for admissions to the academic session that starts in 2013.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court quashed the 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the 27 per cent quota of the OBC. Supreme Court refused to stay the High Court order. Minorities Affairs Minister Rahman Khan made it clear recently that the government would ask the Attorney General to argue for advancing the hearing in the apex court. With the change of guard in Karnataka, Ministry of Minority Affairs is going ahead with its plans to set up one central university in Srirangapatna in Karnataka to be named after Tipu Sultan.
Eyeing the Assembly elections in Delhi, the Ministry of HRD is forwarding the recommendations of the standing committee of NMCME for implementation.
The committee recommended that Delhi government make it compulsory for appointment of teachers to have studied Urdu up to Class XII. “This will enable appointment of Urdu knowing teachers in various subject who will be teaching children in Urdu-medium in schools in Delhi,” the report said. The Committee also recommended that rate of scholarship for student of minority communities may be brought on par with rates of scholarship to SC students.