The Centre told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that projects conducted under the auspices of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) have been “integrated into and replaced” by “comparable initiatives” of the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA), adding that the foundation was established at a time when the ministry was not there. The high court was hearing a plea challenging a February 7 order of the ministry purportedly approving a proposal by the Central Waqf Council to dissolve the MAEF. Giving examples of such schemes, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma appearing for the Centre submitted before a division bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna that skill development previously undertaken by the foundation has been fully incorporated in the ministry’s ‘Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan’ scheme along with various skill development and entrepreneurship programmes. He further said that the infrastructure needs of the minority concentrated areas are now being systematically addressed by the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram’, which is a flagship scheme of the ministry offering a more comprehensive approach. “These are now specialised schemes.so the forking of the benefits to minority communities is now point focussed. Whatever foundation did, could not do, should have done, ought to have done, is now subsumed in the ministry. In any case, it (MAEF) was 100 per cent government funding,” Sharma said. He further said that the foundation was established at a time when the ministry did not exist. “The ministry is existing now with adequate staff, which is effectively executing the initiatives tailored to meet the needs of the minority community in a holistic manner. Given this context, the continued operation of the foundation is rendered obsolete,” Sharma added. Sharma further submitted that around 1,600 projects were initiated by the foundation and that 523 were incomplete to date. “As opposed to this, the ministry has undertaken 75,000 projects. The ministry conducted a gap analysis in the implementation of the schemes and various irregularities were found,” he said. The ASG also submitted that the decision for dissolution was taken in strict adherence to legal protocols, which was opposed by senior advocate Anand Grover, who appeared for the petitioners (Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, John Dayal and Daya Singh) arguing that the decision was not as per law. The matter is next listed on Wednesday. In an interim order passed on March 7, the high court had directed the authorities to not act on their decision till the next date of hearing.
