To give coaching facilities for candidates of minority communities a big push, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said that the Centre has tied up with reputed educational institutions to provide free coaching to minority students taking civil services exams.
“We are looking to give more funds for coaching of minorities as a lot of people have taken the exams and also qualified. In the last exam, around 52 IAS candidates qualified from the minority community. We hope that in the next result too the number will go up,” Naqvi said while addressing a seminar on ‘Role of Education and Skill Development for the Progress of Minorities’ being organized by Siddiqui’s Educational and Welfare Trust (SEWT) in Mumbai.
Naqvi said that government was not doing any favour on minorities and giving money that they deserved.
“Despite problems, Muslims have always given best results for the country to move forward,” he said.
Explaining the coaching facilities being provided by the ministry of minority affairs through its “arrangements” with many leading coaching institutes in the country, Naqvi said that a record number of 52 Muslim candidates cracked the civil services exams in 2016.
“It shows that the community’s youths have benefited from coaching and guidance facilities the ministry has provided. This number will increase as we will give further push to such coaching facilities for candidates of minority communities,” he said.
The minister said that the government is promoting skill development through different ways and is also looking to create hubs at different centres.
“We will also have an exhibition of work of artisans. In February one such exhibition will be held at Islam Gymkhana in city,” he said.
Highlighting his government’s key initiatives in empowering the minorities, Naqvi said that the Centre has made the poor and weaker sections the focal point of many welfare schemes.
“The country’s inclusive growth is ‘rashtradharma’ (national duty) and ‘development with dignity’ of poor and weaker sections is ‘rashtraniti’ (national policy) for the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
The Union minister said that the schemes of his ministry such as ‘Seekho aur Kamao’, ‘Nai Manzil’, ‘Gharib Nawaz Skill Development Scheme’ and ‘Nai Roshni’ have proved as important steps in the direction of skill development of minorities.
“More than 50 lakh people have been provided employment and job opportunities in the last three years through these schemes,” he said.
He further said that 100 ‘Gharib Nawaz Skill Development Centres’ are being set up across the country where various employment- oriented courses are being offered to the youth from minority communities.
He said that 809 school buildings, 10 degree colleges, 371 hostels, 1,392 toilets and drinking water facilities, 53 industrial training institutes (ITIs), 269 multi-purpose community centres ‘Sadbhav Mandap’ and 39 gurukul-type residential schools have been constructed in backward minority concentrated areas.
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