According to various reports, the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government is all set to scrap the 20% “minority quota” which was enacted by the previous Akhilesh led government after it came to power in 2012.
This scheme was reportedly announced by the Akhilesh government after a cabinet meeting in August 2013, and at that time was touted as the means to gain votes before the Lok Sabha elections. Even though the scheme was applicable to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, reports speculated that it was a possible “Muslim card” being played by the Akhilesh government.
This quota is reportedly active for about 85 developmental and welfare schemes operated by the state government. The Yogi government may soon bring up this proposal at a cabinet meeting. Ramapati Shastri the social welfare minister in the Yogi Cabinet has reportedly given his approval by stating that it was not proper to place a quota within state’s welfare and developmental schemes as there should be equal development for each and every citizen of the state.
The quota was applicable on a wide variety of schemes like agriculture, rural development, health care, power, social welfare to name a few. Incidentally these schemes were thoroughly implemented in the regions which had a 25% population of minorities.
After the story has come to light, some people are raising the question that if initially the state government had provided a quota in various welfare plus developmental schemes of the state, then what was the need for proposing special welfare schemes for the minorities?
According to those special schemes, the state government had proposed construction and up-gradation of hostels in various madrasas of the state, construction of boundary walls around 87,000 Muslim graveyards and sanctioning of Rs 400 crores so that students from the minority community could opt for higher education.
This isn’t the only scheme which has come come under the scanner of the Yogi government. Recently the Yogi government has rolled back ration cards containing the picture of Akhilesh Yadav and had decided to enact the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna in place of the Samajwadi Awas Yojna.
