Centre to launch 'Nai Manzil' scheme for minorities from Patna

New Delhi, Aug 6: In a bid to reach out to the minorities in poll-bound Bihar, the Centre on August 8 will launch from Patna a new ambitious scheme that seeks to bridge the academic and skill development gaps between madrassas passouts and their mainstream counterparts.

The aim of the scheme 'Nai Manzil' would be employment generation of the youths and also extending loans for opening enterprises.

"We will launch the scheme in Patna because most of the madrassas are in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and most of the minority concentrated blocks are in these two states," Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla told reporters here.

With the launching of the scheme, she said, the Narendra Modi government would be fulfilling its mandate of launching programmes aimed at minorities, announced after it came to power.

Among the major programmes, the government had earlier this year launched the 'Ustaad' scheme aiming to upgrade skills and training in preservation of traditional ancestral arts/crafts of minorities.

The minister said while they have trained 10,000 people on skill development, the target is to train another 40,000 this year. Besides, 18 tradition skills have been identified for training.

On the other hand, she said over 9,000 people from the minority community were employed in government jobs in 2014-15, referring to a reply given in this regard in Parliament this week by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances Jitendra Singh.

As per the available information, in 2014-15, a total of 9,328 or about 8.51 per cent of candidates recruited by the ministries or government departments were from minority community.

In 2013-14, candidates recruited from the minority community was about 7.89 per cent, Singh had said.

PTI