Headlines
Will not allow communal tension in Bengal: Mamata
Kolkata, Sep 21
Asserting she will not allow
anyone to incite communal tension in the state, West Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday assured funds to madarsas for
encouraging education among the minorities.
Addressing an event
by the state minority development department here, she also announced
that all medical college hospitals in the state will provide free
treatment. Till now only district hospitals have been providing such
facilities.
"We will not allow any attempts to incite communal
tension in the state. People with vested interests always want to divide
people, but we will not allow that to happen," she said.
Appreciating
the performance of the minority community in academics and underlining
the importance of madarsas in spreading education, Banerjee announced a
grant of Rs.25 lakh to a madarsa in Kharagpur of West Midnapore
district.
"I am granting you (Kharagpur madarsa) Rs.25 lakh as
you have been able to spread education. Please make more doctors and
engineers off the students.
"I will give such more grants to
other institutes if they are also able to educate more people. This is a
commitment from my side and is a standing instruction to the concerned
department," said Banerjee also the Trinamool Congress chairperson.
She also said the government is working towards making Urdu the second language in minority-dominated areas of the state.
Lambasting
the erstwhile Left Front government for the burdening the state with
debts, Banerjee enumerated her government's schemes for the welfare of
the minorities.
"Before we came to power, the minorities
(affairs) department had a budget of Rs.472 crore where even 80 percent
was not spent. We have increased that budget to Rs.2,400 crore - an
increase of five times and so minority development is happening," she
contended.
She further said that only eight lakh students from the minority communities got scholarship during the Left Front rule.
"But during our regime in the past four years it is 82 lakh students," she added.
She
also said that the facility of free treatment that was now available
only at district hospitals will be extended to all medical college and
hospitals.