It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you on the first function of the Uttarakhand Commission for minorities. This is our forum and a unique space given to us by for dialogue on minority issues and it is essential that our voices and views be at the heart of this meeting, while we can celebrate success, we should also make our best to overcome the challenges facing the people of the minorities general and youth in particular.

The inspiration to hold such a conference was given to us by the honourable chief minister who as minister of the minority affairs ministry while discussing the role of the commission said that we ought to have conferences seminars and awareness camps more frequently and in that context the idea of celebrating the world Minority day at the state level was born.

His Excellency the Governor Dr. Aziz Quershi who is an extremely secular head of our state has always been of the firm view that we the minorities should become a part of the main stream the sooner the better.

Today’s theme for the conference is minorities- “Achievements and challenges post independence”.

The Achievements with that of our great nation have been tremendous for the minorities as well and great contribution has been done by them in each and every field whether it is as men of the forces, part of governments, heads of state, Scientists industrialists, educationists, medicine the list can go on and the country acknowledges that as minorities the contributions made for the growth of our nation has been noteworthy and a matter of great honour.
However, it was also felt the although one segment of people were educated economically strong and in the main stream another large segment was actually living below the poverty line. Justice Rajinder Sachar in his report popularly known as the Sachar Committee report made it absolutely clear that this segment especially amongst our Muslim brethren need to be given all possible amenities to educate and uplift themselves economically.

He gave a list of 76 recommendations of which 72 were acknowledged by the government and for which with vision of the prime Minister a 15 point programme was initiated and special emphasis was laid to states to implement this programme.

During my tours to various places in the state I feel that people now are realizing that just like the scheduled castes and tribes if we do not educate this section of society and make them financially strong and independent the entire countries GDP will with go down. It is essential that as the nation grows the each and every person living in the country prospers.

With the advent of such programs and schemes by the centre scholarship schemes for students Multi-sectoral Development plan which has identified blocks where 25% of the population is of minorities and we are fortunate that this year all five blocks of UdamSingh Nagar and Haridwar and Vikas Nagar in Dehradun have been identified for which our state Government has sent proposals to the ture of 157 crores.

IDMI Infrastructure development of minority institutions as against 28 proposals and 315 lakhs last year the Government sent 84 proposals and 15.6 crores have been sanctioned of which 14.1 crore has been released.

This year in the SPQEM (Scheme for providing quality education in madrasas as against last years 61 lakh this year 168 lakhs has been released by the centre for the teachers. All the three scholarship scheme have seen a record jump in application this year after a small effort to make our children and parents aware of such programmes.

In pre-metric compared to 11907 applications last year this year 28214 have been submitted and in the state scheme a record 1,60,000 have applied compared to last years 59911.

Here I would like to request the leaders of our communities please rise and let us do some things on our own too. It would like to the example of people like Mr. Devinder Singh of Dehradun who alongwith a dedicated team of youngsters have opened an office in Dehradun and have influenced so many others to take the initiative and fill up forms for scholarships as well as avail other facilities available for them. A Small example would be where till last year not a single form was submitted from doiwala block this year more than 5000 students submitted their applications.

I can go on to tell you the multifold rise in the number of applicants in all schemes.

As the head of a commission I am to be absolutely none biased and speak my mind. I would be failing in my duty if I don’t bring to the knowledge of this august gathering that this Chief Minister who has taken decisions which will go a long way in the welfare of the minorities. To Cite a few in the review meeting last month when I brought to his notice that the uttarakhand Alpsankhyak waqf evam vit Nigam can give loans up to 10 lacs for enterprenuers at 6% rate of interest and subsidy of 25% but the rider is that you need to have a family income of Rs 15976/- per annum as a result of which tehsildars don’t issue certificates and the loans are not availed. He immediately without a second thought raised this sum to Rs 80,000/- for rural and 1, 00,000/- lakh for urban bringing a relief to the entire youth of the minorities the funds of the corporation have also been doubled by him. I have been receiving phone calls from different parts of the state asking me to thank you for this big relief.

He has reduced the percentage from 70 to 50% for meritorious students who get 25000 a part from the sum given under the Gaura devi Kanya Dhan Yojna.

The Haj house has been completed and inaugurated at a cost of 4 crores. Funds for the boundaries of kabristans and cemeteries have been released from the Alpsankyak Vikas Nidhi.

We are thankful to the Government for being sensitive towards the minorities and the suggestion made by the commission which includes an awareness campaign, an increase in tenure, and specially the suggestion for having a member of the minorities in the UPSC board and interviewing Committees has also been agreed upon. The Commission thanks the Government for doing so. I had made a request to his Excellency the Governer who has always been a guiding force that as the chancellor of all the universities. Please ask all the colleges to have a enterpernuer development cell so that our youth can be appraised at the college level that an option to be an entrepreneur is also available and the schemes and amenities being provided by the small and micro scale industries ministry etc can be availed. Mentors at college can actually hold the hand of such students and move them towards becoming a successful entrepreneur also as a careers option. His Excellency was very kind and said he is going to call all the VC’s and take up this matter which we feel could be a huge career option. I thank him once again for his kindness.

I am thankful and welcome our distinguished guests of honour LT Gen Zameer Uddin Shah, Dr. Jaspal Singh and Dr. Mathew Prasad for having been extremely kind and conceding to my request to be with us today I have had the opportunity of hearing them earlier and I can assure you that you will be delighted to then views. I also equally thankful to Dr. Neelam Jain and Mr. Shanta Kumar Negi who are celebrity scholars in their own right and I welcome each and every single person here for having come here to join us in this function and boosting our spirits.

I welcome and thank Minister, MLA’s Padamshree Tom Alter and Dr. Sayeed Alam for agreeing to perform Maulana Abul Kalam Azad for us today.

His Excellency I am sorry we could not arrange for Bahadurshah Zafar ka aakhri Mukara as Dr. Alam needed the stage for at least 8hours prior to the opening of the curtains and it was not possible today.
This is our first attempt and I request each and every one of you to give us your inputs and if the honourable chief Minister approves and we shall make this an annual event.

His Excellency and Honorable Chief Minister Sir I welcome you once again on behalf of all members of the Commission and the entire minority community.