Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the Minorities Affairs department to utilize Rs1 billion meant for financial assistance, medical treatment, scholarship, Jahez/Marriage assistance, natural calamity, and Yatra assistance for deserving and needy people of minorities.Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto was pressing hard to strengthen minorities by providing financial assistance, scholarships, and other facilities to their deserving people. This is why we have started two girls’ hostel projects in Karachi to house poor girls coming to pursue their education.
This he said while presiding over a meeting of the Minorities Affairs department here at the Cm House. The meeting was attended by Minorities Affairs MPA MukeshChawla, Special Assistants to CM Lal Chand Ukrani, Rajveer Singh, Secretaries Minorities Affairs AnjumIqbal, XEN Minorities Sanjay Dodani, and others.The CM said that 4157,880 people or 10,000 households of minorities were economically and socially segregated. Of them, 460,000 are Christian, 3,592,500 Hindus, and 105,380 others.
“The minorities affairs dept mandate is to safeguard and promote minorities’ welfare,” he said and directed the department to launch welfare work, including financial assistance and scholarship programs. To a question, the CM was told that there were 911 religious places, including 734 Mandirs, 141 churches, 23 Gurdwaras, one Pasi place, and others. Murad Shah directed the Minorities Affairs department to get the decaying buildings repaired and where overhauling or expansion works were in progress, get them expedited. Mr. Shah said that he has allocated Rs366.463 million to install CCTV cameras at 253 sensitive Mandirs and other religious institutions. He directed the department to speed up the project.
The CM said that his government has allocated Rs1 billion for the welfare of the Minorities, but distribution has not been made so far. At this, MukeshChawla told the CM that a 17-member Non-Muslim Welfare Committee had been constituted under him. The Committee would scrutinize the cases for financial assistance. MukeshChawla said that Rs580 million has been allocated for repair & maintenance, Rs150 million for financial assistance, Rs120 million for medical treatment, Rs50 million for scholarship, Rs50 million for Jahez/Marriage, Rs20 million for natural calamity, and Rs30 million for Yatra. Giving a break-up of the grant-in-aid funds, the CM was told that Rs5,000 to Rs15,000 would be disbursed to the poor/needy as financial heads four times a year under the policy. Rs200,000 for medical treatment, Rs10,000 to 250,000 (one time) for educational financial assistance (scholarships) to deserving students, Rs50,000 for poor/needy girls for marriage and a maximum of Rs500,000 financial assistance for natural calamity-affected people and Rs200,000 for Yatra.
The CM said that he had approved the establishment of two hostels for underprivileged, poor and needy girls at Swami Narayan Mandir, Karachi for which Rs20 million has been allocated for 2024-25. Rajveer Singh and Lal Chand said that the funds were not enough to complete the work; therefore, the CM approved Rs600 million to complete the work.In the meeting, six schemes were identified going at a slow pace. They include the extension of Rs19.835 million for work of Dharamshala, Larkana, Rs26.670 for the Construction of a Compound Wall, Shade, and two Rooms at Hindu MassanNaudero Near Police Station &SantKirpaDarbarTalukaNaudero District Larkana, Rs39.672 million Rehabilitation of Hindu Massan and Repair of KandhkotDarbar, Rs19.831 million Rehabilitation of SSD DhamSaleh Pat, District Sukkur, Rs19.82 million Renovation of GurdwaraDashmeshDarbar Singh Sahib Jacobabad, Rs20 million Repair of RehrkiDarbar District Ghotki, and Rs14.99 million Construction of Open Shade and renovation work at SSD Temple Madeji and Repair of Baba Jeram Das MandirMandirMadeji.The CM directed the Minorities dept to expedite the work, and he would release more funds if the schemes were completed this year.
