01, Jan 2016

Jan 01, 2016 | PTI| New Delhi
The decline in number of complaints received by the National Commission for Minorities in the last couple of years clearly indicates that the talk about intolerance was “politically-manufactured propaganda”, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday said.
The Union minister of state for minority affairs said the Narendra Modi government has kicked out “power brokers and middlemen” and is now working to ensure all-round empowerment of minorities. “Hundreds of crores have already been disbursed to various states for this purpose,” he said.
“There are people who kept talking of intolerance but the ground reality is different. The number of complaints received by the National Commission for Minorities related to such incidents has fallen which exposes this politically- manufactured propaganda,” Mr Naqvi told reporters here.
Mr Naqvi alleged that some “so-called political champions of secularism” had tried to create an atmosphere of fear to defame the Modi government but the people have rejected these “ill designs”.
Sharing data, Mr Naqvi said that in the year 2012-13, the number of complaints received by the NCM was 2,127 while in 2013-14 this number was around 2,638.
In 2014-15, the number of such complaints came down to 1,995 and in the current fiscal, it is around 1,461, he said. Mr Naqvi said that under the multi-sectoral development programme (MsDP) and other initiatives, minority affairs ministry has released Rs 565 crores to West Bengal, Rs 303 crores to Uttar Pradesh, Rs 170 crores to Assam while other states too have been provided funds during this year.