Minister for Urban Affairs and Minority Welfare Manjalamkuzhi Ali has said that it is important that minority communities become aware of their rights in their entirety.
Inaugurating the State conference of the Minority Educational Association, a consortium of socio-political and religious organisations in the State, at the Town Hall here on Monday, Mr. Ali said ignorance of the rights often led to funds meant to be used for the uplift of the communities remaining unutilised and eventually lapsed.
Explaining the extend of lack of awareness among the communities about what was due to them, the Minister said that only eight candidates sent in their application when the government offered to distribute laptops to the madrassa teachers' children who perused engineering education. He said his Ministry was yet to get the details, including the exact number, of the madrassas in the State, though the government had announced special grant for them.
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The Minister claimed that the UDF government had succeeded in effectively utilising a major share of the Central government funds for the minority welfare in contrast to the nominal amount of the funds utilised during the previous LDF rule. He also said the present government had received as many as 5,75,000 applications for the minority scholarship from across the State, while the LDF government received only a few.
Minority Educational Association chairman Panakkadu Syed Sadiqali Shihab Thangal presided over the function. Representatives of various member- organisations including Subair Nellikkaparamba, M. Abdul Azeez, A.K. Abdul Hameed, K. Moidu, Nasar Faizi Koodathayi, Nadukkandi Aboobacker, and Nisar Olavanna, among others, attended the function.