Financial assistance to be provided to madrasas: Mahmood Ali

Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali has announced that the Telangana government will provide financial assistance to madrasas in the State for development of the Urdu language.

Mr. Ali, speaking as chief guest at the Makhdoom Award and Lifetime Achievement Award function here on Monday, announced an assistance of Rs. 50,000 each for 50 madrasas in the State.

‘Inclusion of Urdu in curriculum’

Further, Mr.Ali and his cabinet colleague Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, who also attended the event, announced that efforts will be made towards inclusion of Urdu language in the curriculum of all schools in the State from the next academic year.

Urdu was neglected during successive regimes of the joint State of Andhra Pradesh, and now, Telangana government has assumed the responsibility of developing and propagating the language, the deputy Chief Minister said.

Mr. Reddy reminisced his association with the revolutionary poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin and said they worked together during trade union movements.

Awardees

Five Makhdoom awards for the years 2010 to 2014 were given to Rashid Azhar, Jeelani Bano, Syed Dawood Ashraf, Aijaz Qureshi and Syed Mustafa Kamal for their work in the fields of poetry, fiction, research and criticism, journalism and promotion of Urdu language respectively. These apart, 14 lifetime achievement awards were presented for the five years to various luminaries. The event was organised by Telangana State Urdu Academy.