Free uniforms for girl madrasah students in Malda

MALDA, Nov. 9: The state minority affairs minister, Mr Abdus Sattar, hailed the state government's programmes for the improvement of Muslim women while announcing free school uniforms for girl madrassa students today. “We have already sanctioned Rs 20 crore for implementing the Women's Empowerment Scheme with the help of several self-help groups,” the minister said. He was addressing a programme at Malda college auditorium, organised by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, for distribution of free uniforms to the girls studying at madrassas in the district. The minister today announced that the state government would provide uniforms to girl students in madrassas up to class VIII from now on. Apart from uniforms, other education and sports-related items were distributed among the madrassa students. The state Minorities Development and Finance Corporation today disbursed term loan sanctioning letters among the minority people here. Mr Sattar said the loan amount of Rs 80.85 lakh was distributed among 196 beneficiaries today. “So far in the district a loan amount of Rs 10.91 crore has helped around 3,000 people to become professionally self-reliant,” he said. Mr Sattar further claimed that the state government had allotted Rs 346 crore in current fiscal year for the development of madrassa education. Addressing the programme, the newly appointed district magistrate Mr. Sridhar K Ghosh assured that the district administration would go out of its way to assist people belonging to the minority community in Malda. n SNS