Arjun: Quota possible for 145;backward146; minorities

HRD Minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday said that minority communities could be given reservation under the constitutional norms of backwardness but no community would get a quota based on religion. The statement came to queries on reservation for minorities under the proposed OBC quota, especially following the Andhra Pradesh HC judgment striking down such a move.

Singh, however, said the monitoring committee had taken up the issue of modernising madarsas but this would not mean interference in their religious teachings.

Singh said a plan to start Urdu schools in the minority-dominated 125 districts of the country had been proposed and a central scheme could be brought up in the 11th plan. He said the vice-chancellors of Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Maulana Azad National University have been asked to look into training for Urdu teachers.