UP CM to host states' meet to review minority welfare schemes

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is going to host a coordination meeting between the Centre and various states and union territories to review the implementation on the ground of various central schemes for minorities welfare.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday that the meeting will be held in Lucknow on Thursday (January 18) and would be hosted by Adityanath.

The meeting, to be presided over by Naqvi, will see participation from ministers and senior officials from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh.

"The meeting would discuss the status of implementation of a plethora of central schemes for minorities' welfare and development and also the roadmap for further implementation and improvement," Naqvi said.

The central government will be holding coordination meetings with the states to review the implementation on the ground of these central schemes.

Naqvi said that the government is mulling to open Navodaya schools in minority concentration districts to provide better education opportunities to the minorities.

However, he added that these schools would not serve exclusively to minority students only and students from other communities would also be given admission.

"The idea is to have around 30-35 per cent of students from minorities and rest from other community...There would not be any reservation for minority students," he said.

He said the government is also working on madrasa modernisation and over the last one-and-a-half years, around 1,400 madrasas across the country have been linked with the scheme.

"We are working on the concept of ‘3T's, that is, teacher, tiffin and toilet. We are providing teachers to the madrasas for subjects like English, Maths, Science, computer etc to link the madrasa students with mainstream education," Naqvi said.

More such meetings will soon be held in Mumbai and Kolkata, he said.