Government to open community centres for minorities

NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to open Sadbhavna Mandap in all states that will function as community centres for minority communities. These centres will have skill training centres, grievance cells, counselling, halls to conduct marriages, meetings among other facilities. The centres will also be equipped to handle more people and provide them with essentials during natural disasters.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said a lot of this was done earlier under the multi-sectoral development programme for minorities which has now been renamed and expanded. Renamed as Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Yojna, the programme has shades of Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavna Yatra that he undertook as Gujarat CM to connect with Muslims. The ministry has also reached out to Indian railways to identify land that can be used for building these centres. Officials said `132 crore have been spent on this till now, while the entire scheme has an outlay of `6,500 crore.

Naqvi said all states have been asked to send in a list of places where these centres can be opened. Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Haryana have already identified plots. "This time, we will monitor this scheme at the central level and not leave everything to the state," he added.

The minister also added that a samadhan cell, exclusively to address grievances of the minority community, is being set up in the ministry. It will have a helpline that will make a note of people’s complaints and solve them in 48 hours. He said the government’s plans to increase reach out to Muslims was not to make up for the criticism that the Centre faces on some counts regarding Kashmir. "We had already planned such centres and job training units in Leh, Jammu and Kargil. Our efforts to train and employ the youth of Kashmir will go on," the minister said.