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The Union Government on December 22 launched two schemes for minorities welfare including a five-year fellowship to students for higher studies and computerisation of records of state Wakf boards. Launching the schemes, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said education and employment of minorities are priority areas for the United Party Alliance (UPA) government.

The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad National Fellowship, to be implemented by University Grants Commission , will help 756 minority students annually to pursue M. Phil and Ph. D. degrees. Of this, 30 per cent will be earmarked for women candidates.

Salman hoped that the scheme, which also provides for reservation for differently-abled students as per UGC norms, would help create a "gene pool of outstanding people". The scheme for computerisation of Wakf Boards aims at ensuring proper survey and cross checking of Wakf data, tracking of encroachment on Wakf properties, tracking litigations'' management system and creation of a centralised and web-enabled data base for use by various stake holders.

It may be recalled that there are about 300,000 wakf properties in India on about 400,000 acres of land. They are looked after by 35 different wakf boards (some states such as UP, Bihar etc have separate Sunni and Shia wakf boards). A Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by Mr. K. Rahman Khan, Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, tabled earlier this year had pointed out the mismanagement and corruption in the following words: 'The Wakf boards in most states of India are repositories of corruption, in league with land sharks and builders. They continue to get away with the daylight robbery of their own community because, whenever there is any demand for scrutiny, they crudely take cover behind the “Islam in danger” sentiment.'

Khurshid described the scheme, to be implemented by National Informatics Centre, as "taking an ancient institution and marry it with most modern technology". The Ministry has earmarked a budgetary estimate of Rs. 10 crore for the Wakf Board scheme.

Khurshid said once the government is able to "unlock" the potentials of Wakfs as advised by the Sachar Committee, it will be possible to get "enormous amount of funds from within the system" for minority welfare works. He said the draft for amending the Wakf Act is with the Law Ministry and once it is passed, it will go a long way in solving the problem of encroachment of such properties.

Andalib Akhter adds:
Incentives to pvt. sector for Jobs to Minorities

In a rare gesture, the Government is planning to offer tax exemptions and other benefits to the private-sector companies that employ religious minorities on a large scale thereby enhancing the minorities' participation in the private sector.

According to sources close to Minister for Minorities Affairs and the Corporate affairs Salman Khurshid, the incentive scheme would be an alternative to earlier suggestions of a private-sector job quota that industry opposed.

The scheme, likely to be implemented from 2010, the Centre will also train a certain number of minority job-seekers for private-sector employment by upgrading their skills at Government cost.
Sources said that the officials of the Ministry of Minority Affairs are already in touch with major corporate houses to implement he scheme. “Ministry is in touch with companies and corporate houses including Infosys, the Tata group, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd, PepsiCo, the ITC Welcom Group of Hotels and Hero Honda for the purpose” sources said.

The Ministry official said the Government did not want to push reservation for minorities as it may create tension and backfire. They said that the new scheme would not only help the job seekers from the minority community but also the companies that employ them.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also urged the industry to voluntarily take affirmative action on recruitment of minority unemployed youths.

Business chamber FICCI then would set up a task force to look into the issue. The task force's report to the Prime Minister rejected any legally enforceable job quota. The Centre had earlier asked public and private sector firms to do a religion-based headcount of their employees as part of an effort to end discrimination.

Taking a firm step, the Amanath Cooperative Bank here initiated measures to recover outstanding debts from defaulters belonging to the City's Muslim elite. The Bank auctioned the immoveable property worth Rs, 3.34 crore belonging to Mohamed Asadulla, the former general manager of the bank. Asadulla who had been removed from the bank after alleged involvement in embezzlement of funds, owed Amanath Bank Rs. 37,80,512 on October 31, 2009 against the Jayanagar property where he resided.

The property on a plot of 2,394 sq. feet in the upmarket T. Block of the Jayanagar area was estimated to carry a market value of Rs. 3.34 crore and had a swimming pool. In a deft move, the property was put under the auctioneers' hammer on December 24, 2009 by the Bank administration which is currently headed by a Government appointed CEO and Administrator.

Of late Amanath Bank under the new dispensation has taken measures to recover the dues from defaulters whose list reads like a Muslim Who's Who of the city. On November 14, 2009, the Amanath Bank published a balance sheet for the financial year ending on March 31, 2008 in The Times of India, the top circulated daily of the city. The list showed huge outstanding debts running to the tune of several crore of rupees against several persons who had defaulted on payment of their dues to the bank for several years. Among them were former directors of the bank, an MP who currently holds the position of Deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, a couple of noted builders, several office bearers of the Al-Ameen Educational Society and Majlis e Millia, another prominent NGO, a fruit merchant of longstanding, a carpet dealer who is no more, directors of a few noted companies and some of the bank staffers themselves.

The balance sheet carrying cumulative outstanding debts against group of debtors though did not reveal the individual components, created a stir in the city's Muslim elite. Administrator of the Bank Mr. Zameer Pasha told the Islamic Voice that the 'law would take its own course and mortgaged immoveable properties against the borrowings would continue to be auctioned in case of non-recovery of dues, however high and mighty might be the defaulter'.

The Bank's move has been widely welcomed by a cross section of the Muslims in the city.
It may be recalled that Amanath Cooperative Bank Limited joined the list of sick banks seven years ago when several leading businessmen, realtors and bank directors defaulted on payments. It was only during the crisis that news of embezzlement of funds fuelled panic among the depositors leading to loss of trust and withdrawal of deposits in a big way. Unfortunately, some of the founders of the banks turned out to be its worst tormentors, having been involved in reckless lending to their kith and kin without prospects of return of the loans. It was also revealed that loans to several individual related to the directors were written off, and interest waived. The Government took over the control of the bank three years ago and appointed an Administrator and CEO.