Bengal CM boosts stipend for Imams and Purohits.

Mamata Banerjee proposed a rise within the month-to-month stipend for Muslim clerics, which she offset with a rise within the stipend for Hindu monks (Purohits), reportedly out of concern for the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Muslim voter base.

Supply: Hindustan Occasions

The TMC is trying to cease the lack of its Muslim voter base, therefore the Rs 500 improve within the grant for Muslim clergy, together with muezzins.

At a gathering of muezzins and imams on Monday at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium, Banerjee made the information. “Our capability is constrained. I’d ask that their (the imams and muezzins’) month-to-month allowances be raised by Rs 500. We’d additionally increase the purohits’ allowance by Rs. 500 per 30 days.

Banerjee continued, stating that every time she attends occasions hosted by spiritual minorities, individuals incessantly query her dedication to secularism. Within the state, there are roughly 30,000 imams and 20,000 muezzins who’re supported financially by the federal government.

Presently, imams and muezzins every obtain Rs 2,500 per 30 days, a stipend that the federal government initially introduced in 2012. Eight years later, with the BJP on the rise and the state’s Meeting elections approaching, Banerjee promised a month-to-month stipend of Rs 1,000 and free lodging for the 8,000 underprivileged Sanatan Brahmin monks. Previous to the occasion, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief has additionally been giving presents and help to Durga Puja committees.

The TMC misplaced a byelection to the Congress in February of this 12 months in Sagardighi, within the Murshidabad district, signalling a deterioration in its help amongst Muslims in a hitherto stronghold. Consequently, Banerjee made a variety of adjustments to the social gathering’s minority management the next month. created a five-person committee beneath the path of state minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who serves because the state president of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, and charged him with overseeing the minority-dominated districts of Malda, Murshidabad, and Dakshin Dinajpur. The Bengali-speaking Muslims of the state are deeply rooted within the Jamiat. By eradicating his oversight over Murshidabad, Howrah, and Hooghly, minister Firhad Hakim additionally had his profile diminished by Banerjee. 

This was the CM’s admission of a gulf between the primarily city and Bengali-speaking Muslims and their predominantly rural counterparts, in addition to the previous’s tilt in the direction of the Indian Secular Entrance (ISF), which had supported the Congress in Sagardighi and is led by Furfura Sharif preacher Peerzada Abbas Siddiqui.

The chief minister acknowledged that she appreciates the position that Muslim clerics have performed in elevating consciousness of her administration’s welfare programmes, together with Mission Nirmal Bangla, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Kanyashree, and Sabuj Sathi. “I’ve established a committee made up of a number of ministers to research the expansion of Waqf properties. In three months, they are going to flip of their report. We recognised 307 madrasas with out help, and this 12 months we are going to recognise 700 extra. College students who attend unregistered madrasas should not eligible for state authorities welfare programmes. With the help of residents within the space, we are going to find the identical.”