Hyderabad, April 27 : Congress MLC and former Minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir on Sunday appealed to the people, especially the minorities, to vote in favour of Congress candidates to ensure continuance of welfare measures across the country.
In a media statement, Shabbir Ali described the 10-year regime of Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre as the "Golden Decade" for minorities in India. The Congress-led UPA Government has set a new benchmark for the development of minorities in the country. "While the UPA-I laid the foundation for the real growth of minorities, the UPA-II accomplished what could not be achieved in the last 50 years," he said.
Quoting different agencies, Shabbir Ali said that there has been an improvement in literacy rate and drop in unemployment ratio among minorities. "The literacy rate among Muslims has registered a marked improvement from 52.1% in 1999-2000 to 63.5% in 2007-08 for rural areas and from 69.8% to 75.1% for urban areas. The literacy rate of Muslims as ratio of national average has gone up from 0.93 in 1999-2000 to 0.95 in 2007-08 for rural areas. The figure for urban areas has gone up from 0.87 in 1999-2000 to 0.89 in 2007-08," he said.
Under PM`s 15 points programme 11 ministries have introduced 24 programmes for minorities. Scholarship and Multi Sectoral Development Programme are important among them, he said. In Andhra Pradesh, he budget for minorities welfare has been increased to over Rs 1,000 crore.
"Despite legal hurdles, the Congress Government has been implementing the 4% Reservation for Muslims in jobs and education. As many as 225 seats are reserved for Muslims in Government Medical Colleges under BC-E category. Due to the combined output of 4% reservation and five minorities' medical colleges, a total of 725 Muslim youth are becoming doctors every years," he said.
Likewise, in the year 2013-14, under BC-E category, Muslim students got admissions on 9,023 Engineering seats. As many as 12,415 Muslims got admission in B Tech/B Pharm through SW-I & SW-II-AC, 5,975 in MBA/MCA, 1,840 in M Tech/M Pharm and 2,250 in B Ed courses. Due to 4% reservation in local bodies polls, for the first time 226 Muslims were elected as sarpanches. Shabbir Ali said that the Congress Government has completely revolutionalised the lives of poor Muslims across the country, especially Andhra Pradesh.
Shabbir Ali expressed confidence that the Congress party will come to power both in Telangana and at the Centre and will intensify its efforts for the overall development of minorities. INN
