Author: Saugar Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 11, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/201759/Buddha-mulls-coaching-to-prepare-Muslim-teachers.html
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee who has been
regularly breaking bread at Iftaars may not have reserved berths for the minorities.
But an uptight Marxist Government eager to arrest the escaping Muslim vote
bank has decided to do exactly so by setting aside coaching facilities for
the Muslims to enable them get teaching jobs.
The State Government has planned free coaching
facility for the State's minorities to help them pass school service commission
exams.
The Government will provide such facilities
in 12 districts to begin with. In the initial round the Government will spend
Rs 50 lakh for the purpose, State Minority Development and Finance Corporation
Chairman Mohammad Salim maintained adding at least 6,000 candidates would
be imparted free coaching.
The Sacchhar Committee report had stated that
the Muslims do not even represent 10 per cent of the workforce in institutions
like Kolkata Police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the two biggest Government
organisations notwithstanding the fact that they constitute more than 25 per
cent of the State's population. Worse still only 2 per cent Muslim women have
Government jobs.
Reports also said the number of Muslim employees
in Group A and B positions only comprise about 4.7 per cent. In the lower
Group C and D, they were just 1.8 per cent. The Opposition cashed in on the
poor condition of the Muslims in West Bengal in the general elections. The
underprivileged status of the Muslims earlier led AS Malihawadi, a Rajya Sabha
MP to claim there were more Muslims in jails than in Government jobs.
Even Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
went on record wondering "After all how far can we hide behind excuses
and allow a sizeable part of West Bengal to languish in backwardness?"
The free training facility imitates similar
facilities provided by the Alia University for Muslim where 35,000 students
would get training in various streams with 90 per cent subsidy from the State
Government.
