Mangaluru: Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Raju has directed officials to thoroughly verify whether the funds released under various schemes for the welfare of minorities are being properly utilized and whether the works are being implemented with quality.
He was speaking while presiding over a progress review meeting on the Prime Minister’s New 15-Point Programme and Centrally Sponsored Schemes for the welfare of minorities, held at the Deputy Commissioner's office.
Under educational and employment schemes for minorities, grants are being released to beneficiaries and various institutions. He instructed officials to ensure that beneficiaries use the funds appropriately. Information about minority welfare schemes should be disseminated in various gram sabhas (village meetings), and greater awareness about the schemes should be created among the beneficiaries, he emphasized.
Priority should be given to providing quality education in educational institutions under the Minority Welfare Department. Efforts must be made to ensure good academic outcomes. He instructed the Deputy Director of the School Education Department to periodically review the quality of education.
Effective measures must be taken to increase admissions in residential schools and Maulana Azad Model Schools. Although there are 2,700 seats available across 13 Maulana Azad Model Schools in the district, only 1,069 have been filled. He emphasized the need to quickly fill the vacancies in minority hostels.
Last year, scholarships amounting to ₹16.18 crore were released to 63,102 minority students in the district, and applications from 13,924 more students are still pending approval. Under the Foreign Education Scholarship Scheme, ₹11.39 crore was released to 120 students. The application process for scholarships for the current year is ongoing and the deadline is September 30, officials from the Minority Welfare Department informed the meeting.
Under the Christian Community Development Scheme for the year 2024–25, ₹12.82 crore has been released to 86 institutions in the district for church repairs, compound wall constructions, and graveyard development. Additionally, ₹5.52 crore has been allocated to 21 institutions for the development of Jain basadis and community halls, and ₹95 lakh to 19 madrasas for computers and other facilities.
Officials from the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation informed the meeting that last year, facilities worth ₹10.67 crore were provided to 1,066 beneficiaries in the district under various schemes. Under the Minority Colonies Development Scheme, administrative approval has been given for various works in six assembly constituencies in the district, and the works are in progress.
Present at the meeting were Santosh Kumar (Director of Urban Development Planning), Jayalakshmi (Deputy Secretary of the Zilla Panchayat), Jinendra Kotian (District Officer of Minority Welfare Department), and committee members Subhash Chouta, Mansoor Azad, Aftab Hussain, Peter, and Extension Officer Muhammad Farooq, among others.