NEW DELHI – The Congress on Thursday promised enhanced educational and job opportunities for Muslim and other minority voters in Delhi after it comes to power in the February 5 Assembly election.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress MP Imran Masood hit out at the AAP government in Delhi for making hollow promises to minorities.
He said the Congress will take steps for the welfare of Muslims and minorities by implementing the UPA government’s 15-point programme based on Justice Rajinder Sachar committee report.
“The AAP was exposed during the CAA agitation and the Delhi riots in 2020,” he said, adding that minorities and the underprivileged have been at the receiving end ever since the AAP came to power in Delhi and the BJP came to power at the Centre.
He said the Congress manifesto for the Delhi Assembly election reflects its commitment to protect and uplift the minorities, to bring them into the mainstream by facilitating their progress through various schemes.
He said that both the AAP and the BJP had ignored and suppressed the interest of minorities for the past 10 years.
Masood said on coming to power in Delhi, the Congress will implement the Prime Minister’s 15-point action plan, drafted under the UPA government to implement the Sachar Committee report for the welfare of minorities. The measures would include enhanced educational opportunities, equal participation in financial and employment opportunities, and prevention of communal violence and social unrest, he said.
He said that the Congress, on winning the Delhi Assembly election, will revive the Punjabi Academy, fund a Punjabi Chair in JNU and strengthen the Delhi SC/ST, Minority and Handicapped Development Finance Corporation so that these communities can get the lowest interest rate loans to start a business.
The Congress leader said that the party’s government will fill vacancies of Urdu, Punjabi and Bhojpuri teachers on a priority basis, establish a university in the name of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur and set up a Jain Welfare Board, convene the Delhi Waqf Board and ensure timely payments to Imams and Muezzins.
Voting to pick a new 70-member Delhi Assembly will take place on February 5. The result will be declared on February 8. The Congress, which ruled the city for 15 years between 1998 and 2013, has failed to win even a single Assembly seat in the last two Assembly polls in 2015 and 2020. -IANS
