She promised to install 6527 deep tubewells for them. “This year, 7.5 lakh students will get scholarships while the number will go up by at least 1.06 lakh next year,” she announced.
At a programme organised by West Bengal Minority Development and Finance Corporation on Saturday, the chief minister said that she was also thinking about launching a housing scheme for the minorities.
“I have instructed the Mayor of Kolkata to construct 5,000 houses for minorities,” she maintained.
She said scholarships and stipend worth Rs 122 crore and loans to the tune of Rs 82 crore would be disbursed to fund higher studies for the minority community students.
A minority department office with full fledged infrastructure will come up in each district and there will be a separate databank under the state government’s Employment Bank for job seekers belonging to the minority communities. Besides emphasising on skill development of students during their study at higher secondary level, she said, 10,000 job-seeking youths from the minorities would be selected from the Employment Bank for training.
Minority reservations to be reviewed
Chief Minister also said that she wanted the reservation of minorities under Other Backward Class (OBC) quota, cleared by the erstwhile Left regime, to be reviewed by an expert committee as it was done in a hurry and for political purpose.
“There are many defects in the process, in view of which the Governor did not sign the Bill. I have instructed the state minority affairs department secretary to constitute an expert committee to look into the matter. The previous government had made a defective reservation-related Act and a case has been filed in the High Court and the matter is now sub judice.” she said.
“We will table a (fresh) Bill in the Assembly,” Miss Banerjee announced.
Earlier chief minister met Justice Rajindar Sachar and sought his opinion on the work to be done for minority development.