Minority report: Congress MLA debunks state govt claims

Shaikh said that the state’s last Five Year Plan had a total allocation Rs 1.28 lakh crore and Rs 93 crore was earmarked for development of minorities. However,only Rs 76.64 crore had been spent by the BJP government.

Noting that the state government has been preparing to challenge the High Court’s ruling of allowing pre-metric scholarships to students from the minority communities,the MLA said the state government had given no grant to Wakf Board in the last 11 years and alleged that it had been partial in providing basic amenities in areas dominated by minorities. Not a single religious place,including historic Sidi Saiyyed Jali,was featured in Khusboo Gujarat Ki,the state government’s tourism promotion initiative.

In his reply,Vora said that while eight states were rated fair and other 15 poor in Prime Minister’s 15-point gradation on the condition of minorities,Gujarat was rated good. He said the Sachar Committee report on Muslim’s status on economical,social and educational counts were there for everyone to see.

Vora said that against 59.1 per cent of national literacy rate among Muslims,the figure was 73.5 per cent in Gujarat. He said Gujarat was the only state where 4.5 per cent of Muslims have been recruited for government jobs against their population of 9.1 per cent.