Pics : Shivaprasad Vakwady
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SV)
Udupi, Dec 4: As part of the state-wide campaign for the rights of minorities, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) staged a day-long hunger strike at the District Commissioner Office, Udupi on Saturday, December 3.
The central and state government had been depriving the minorities for 69 years of independence. Muslim, Christain, Jain, Sikh, Buddha and Parsi comprise the main communities in minorities. But Muslims are most backward community among this and the governments are neglecting the development of this community particularly, said the press release.
'Negligence of the government'
The communiqué pointed out that the government had sanctioned Rs 30 crore in the year 2014-2015, but has sanctioned just Rs 18 crore for the year 2015-2016 for merit-cum-means scholarship.
There are 27,597 applicants who are still waiting for the pending amount to be paid by the state government under the ambitious 'Shaadi Bhagya' scheme of state government.
While applying online, it has become impossible to get scholarship provided by the state government to students of the minority community, due to technical problem in the servers.
As per the circular of the state government, every government departments has to spend 15% for the social, educational and economical development of the minorities, but it has not been implemented.
Other demands
1)The central and state government to reserve a sum of Ten Thousand crore Rupees for the development of minorities in the budget of 2017-2018.
2)To start Morarji Desai Residential Schools and Pre-University Colleges for minorities in all district centres.
3)The government implement the reservation for minorities in private sector.
4) Immediate implementation of either Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme or Communal Violence Prevention Act 2005, intended by UPA government, in view of the report given by the Department of Home Affairs which states that Karnataka is the most communally sensitive state in South India.
SDPI district secretary of Dakshina Kannada, Iqbal Bellare, district committee member, Aseef Manchi, SDPI Udupi district vice president, Sadique udupi, general secretary, Abdul Rehman, Iliyas Sasthana, Nazir Udupi and many others from the district were present for the protest.