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Journalism of Courage
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget announcement of Nai Manzil for minority students isn’t exactly a new scheme. It was a part of Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla’s written reply to a Rajya Sabha question in July last year, and is also a part of the ministry’s e-book. While Heptulla had told the House that the scheme had already started, Jaitley said it is going to be initiated. Officials say the scheme has been bandied about for years without actual allocations.
“An integrated education and livelihood scheme called Nai Manzil will be launched this year to enable minority youth who do not have a formal school-leaving certificate to obtain one and find better employment,” Jaitley said. In the Budget figures for the Minority Ministry, though, there is no separate allocation for the scheme. The total allocation for the ministry went up marginally by Rs 600 crore from the revised estimate to Rs 3,738.11 crore. The budgetary allocation remains the same.
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In a presentation prepared by the ministry in 2006, Nai Manzil was mentioned as a part of the new initiatives that were planned. A source in the Maulana Azad Educational Foundation, a voluntary organisation funded by the Minority Affairs Ministry, said that though announcements were made, it did not actually take off for want of budgetary allocations. “Maybe now we will get the money for it,” the official said.
