The Karnataka Ministry for Minority Welfare has set up a ‘Think Tank’ to plan, to oversee planning and execution of various programmes under the budget of Minority Department. It will monitor and evaluate the progress of the programmes on a quarterly basis.
Speaking to the members of the Think Tank at its first meeting on August 8, Minister for Wakf, Haj and Minority Welfare, Mumtaz Ali Khan said the forum was an unofficial body will ensure that the fiscal grant allocated in the annual state budget (Rs. 144 crore during 2008-09) utilised fully and faithfully. He said Chief Minister Yeddyurappa had asked him to see that the funds do not remain unutilised. He said Ministry would make an assessment of the wakf properties and identify encroachments, initiate measures to retrieve them and seek help from NGOs and committed individuals.
The forum has the following members : Mr. Khader Mohiddin, chief engineer (retd), and former KPSC member; Dr. K. Syed Ziauddin, professor, Veterinary College, Bangalore; Justice Farooq (retd); Dr. S. G. Anwar Pasha; Mr. A. S. Puthige, editor, Kannada daily Vartha Bharti; Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, journalist; Ziaullah Sheriff, chairman, India Builders Corporation; Irfan Razzak, chairman, Prestige Group; Mr. D. V. Shivaramu, social wrokers, Dr. K. V. Raju, professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore; Mr. Syed Muneer Ahmed; Prof. Haseen Taj, Education Department, Bangalore University; Dr. Abdul Aziz, economist and visiting professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change; K. C. Naikwadi, chief engineer, KPTCL and social worker; Mr. M. A. K. Tayab, IAS(retd), secretary, Govt. of India; Prof. Akheel Ahmed, department of Chemistry, Mysore University and newly appointed Vice Chancellor, Yenepoya University, Mangalore; Mir Ali Raza, jeweller; Smt. Devika Jain, writer and economist; Mrs. Ranjinikumar IAS, Principal Secretary, (since then tranferred to other department).
Mr. Tayab suggested that the Department should accord topmost priority to modern education of minorities. He advised that the Dept. could assign the work of survey of madrasas to some NGOs. Mr. A. S. Puthige suggested initiating some schemes patterned after RUDSET (Rural Development and Self Employment Scheme) being run by Dharmasthala trust in South Canara district.
Mr. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj said the employment scenario was changing rapidly all across the world. Tailors and hoarding painters have lost their jobs due garment firms and digital printing of hoarding material. Embroiders are threatened as computerised embroidery machines have rendered them irrelevant. Introduction of Metro train in Bangalore will make the nearly half the autorickshaws (of the one lakh of them) redundant. He also questioned the relevance of continuing the Urdu medium schools which were producing functionally iliterate Muslim children who do not fit into the economy. He requested that the Department should allocate funds for research and seminars too for the purpose of looking for new avenues and opportunities. He said today’s muezzins would have no jobs tomorrow as mosques are getting connected by Internet for synchronous azan from a centralised mosque (as in Dubai and Cairo).
Mr. K. C. Naikwadi drew the attention of a largely Muslim dominated slum of D. J. Halli in Bangalore where people were denied basic facilities of roads, water, roads, sanitation and schools. He questioned as to why schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were not making a dent into these areas.
Mr. Ziaullah Sheriff said he was funding midday meals schemes for 4000 kids of the State’s largest Govt. Urdu School in D. J. Halli area through colaboration with ISKCON temple’s Akshay Patra scheme. He also mentioned his effort at imparting a diploma course for the madrassa graduates through Darul Umoor at Srirangapatnam, near Mysore. Mr. Sheriff, heading a leading construction company, said his company was providing employment to nearly 5,000 persons.
Mrs. Ranjinikumar said the 300 shadimahals (79 of them have already been commissioned) should become employment generating centres with persons such as outfitters, beauticians, zari workers, caterers, band-baja, setting up their workshops around them. Several members questioned the construction of so many shadimahals and said they should be rather used (and built too) as multipurpose community centres where vocational skills could be imparted and orientation could be provided to teachers, students and entrepreneurs etc.
Dr. Abdul Aziz also laid emphasis on providing modern education and modernising the madrasa syllabus, checking dropout of Muslim kids from schools, introducing midday meals even introducing incentives like giving cash for better attendance to students. He also advised the Ministry to bring out a journal or newsletter to debunk several myths being propagated by the interested quarters. He also stressed fixing certain emoluments for muezzins and imams.
Prof. Mastan Shaik of Bangalore University urged that the Muslim and minority youth should be involed in nation-building activities. Economist B. V. Raju suggested that physical, financial, and legal status of wakf properties should be assessed through modern means such as GIS (Geographical Identification System). He also advised that a vision statement should be prepared for the Department and task forces should be set up for time bound programme implementation.
Mr. Mujibullah Zaffari, private secretary to the Minister, detailed the objectives before the Think Tank and thanked the participants.
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OCTOBER 2008 |