Chairman of the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation N.B. Aboobakkar said on Tuesday that ever since the BJP came to power in the State in 2008, the policies of the corporation had benefitted 12 lakh beneficiaries from minority communities, who had been given assistance amounting to Rs. 897 crore.
Mr. Aboobakkar told presspersons here that when the Congress and Janata Dal were in power, the annual allocation to the corporation never crossed Rs. 35 crore. But after the BJP came to power, the corporation had been given Rs. 167 crore in 2008-09, Rs. 172 crore in 2009-10, Rs. 252 crore in 2010-11, and Rs. 395 crore in 2011-12.
The BJP had launched more schemes for minority communities in the past four years than other governments in past 60 years. The earlier governments used to give a grant of Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lakh for construction of shaadi mahals, but the BJP government was giving Rs. 20 lakh to build a shaadi mahal in rural areas, and Rs. 50 lakh for such a building in urban areas, he said. As many as 250 shaadi mahals and community halls had been constructed at a cost of Rs. 45 crore. A sum of Rs. 23.6 crore had been given for construction of hostels for minority communities. A sum of Rs. 46 crore had been provided to repair 1,000 mosques and dargahs. The corporation had spent Rs. 239 crore on 1.36 lakh beneficiaries under its various schemes in the first 21 years since its establishment (It was set up 25 years ago). But in the last four years, the corporation had spent Rs. 243 crore on 1.43 lakh beneficiaries. A sum of Rs. 78 crore had been spent on providing professional education to students from minority communities, he said.
