New Delhi: Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday said as many as 27 lakh minority children are devoid of education in West Bengal as the state government has not taken the benefits of central scholarships for the last two years.
Replying to a supplementary in Rajya Sabha on minority administered institutes, raised by BJP’s Rakesh Sinha, Naqvi said West Benal has refused to take the benefits of scholarships granted to minority students resulting in students of minority communities like Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims and Parsis not getting its advantage.
“Twenty seven lakh minority students are devoid of education…,” he said, adding that this despite the Centre’s letter requesting the state to accept the scholarships.
He said, “The National Scholarship Portal was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016-17. We feel sad that in the last two years, West Bengal has not taken their (students) scholarship,” Naqvi said.
He said under PM Modi, the BJP government worked in the direction of holistic development and the appeasement policy has been done away with.
He said students belonging to other sections also can take admission in minority institutions.
Naqvi said there are 83 National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), with a total of 32,862 seats. In these institutions, there are 17,212 students, including 11,166 non-minority students, he said.
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