Rs 800 cr to develop areas thickly populated by minorities

The Minority Welfare, Haj and Wakf department has announced several schemes for education of minorities. Areas predominantly occupied by minorities will get better infrastructure through development programmes to be implemented at a cost of Rs 800 crore.

For the protection and development of Waqf properties, including highly sensitive Waqf properties under the Indian Archaeological Survey and Karnataka Archaeological Survey, Rs 15 crore has been allocated.

In Mysuru, the Aziz Sait Memorial Samudaya Bhavan will be set up with a grant of Rs 3 crore. Aziz Sait, former Congress MLA is the father of Tanveer Sait who holds the Minority welfare portfolio.

An amount of Rs 200 crore has been set aside for the development of Christian community and Rs 80 crore for development of Jain and Sikh communities.

A startup loan facility scheme for women will be implemented at a cost of Rs 15 crore through the Minority Development Corporation. A diversity and minority study chair will be established at Bengaluru Central University.

A total of 25 new Morarji Desai Residential Schools, five pre-matric women's hostels, two model residential schools, 25 student hostels, 10 working women hostels, four BEd and DEd English medium colleges, girls' residential colleges and resource centre will be opened.

The annual family income limit for admission which was Rs 44,500 for  hostels and Rs  1 lakh for residential schools run by the department has been increased to Rs 2.5 lakh.  

Education in madarasas will be modernised and infrastructure will be improved in phases at a cost of Rs 15 crore.