Shimla: The Ministry for Minority Affairs has announced a package of Rs 120 crore for flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference here,Union Minority Affairs minister Najma Heptulla here yesterday said that the focus would be mainly on rehabilitation of flood victims, who have been rendered homeless and have no source of income.
She said that the rehabilitation package would include skill development of the young victims, the re-construction of schools, toilets and told that the scholarships for Kashmiris have also been increased.
The Union minister was here at the Portmore Girls Senior secondary school to launch the much-awaited minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 and a higher wage ceiling of Rs 15,000 for social security schemes run by Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)
Heptulla said that the scheme would immediately benefit 28-lakh pensioners, who get less than Rs 1000 as pension.
She said the central government would go in for the development of six lakh acre land of Waqf Trust for the minorities and a drive would be launched to remove all the encroachments on Waqf lands.
The economic activity generated on these lands would help in earning Rs 1200 to Rs 2000 crore annually, she stressed.
She said the Narendra Modi government at the Center has started various schemes for the upliftment of the minority community and the endeavor is to bring the minorities into mainstream through schemes like USTAD (Up gradation of Skill and Training of Traditional Artists), Nayee Roshni, Nayee Manzil and help minority children catch up with times by modernizing the 'madarsas'.
She said the vision of the Prime Minister is clear and he has been stressing that Muslims should go for modernisation but at the same time preserve their religion and culture.
"Quran in one hand and computer in the other" is the motto, she said.
Heptullah said Modi had given a boost to the economy of poor people of Muslim community, who used to make 'Patangs' (kites) in Gujarat and said that with modernisation of this mini industry, Gujarat was now exporting kites to different nations.
She also said the Minority Affairs ministry has a plan to restore the 8000 rare manuscripts of the Jains, which are written on the Palm leaves.
"We are in touch with the experts at Ahmadabad museum for this," she said.
