The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Market committees to have one Muslim coopted member each

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 09, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Market committees to have one Muslim coopted member each

Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: All the 324 market committees in the State would have at least one Muslim as a coopted member shortly, according to the Chairman of the State Minorities' Finance Corporation Ltd., Farooq Hussain.

Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, he said that unlike the previous TDP regime, the Congress Government headed by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was helpful to the minorities in the State.

The municipalities and gram panchayats currently have only one coopted member from the minorities, but in the near future this would be increased to two.

`Minorities wary'

Similarly, while there are none in the cooperative societies, it was decided to coopt one member from the minorities hereafter and these decisions would be implemented soon, he disclosed.

``For nine years, the TDP rule under Chandrababu Naidu cheated the minorities in the name of Roshni, Dukan-Makan, etc. Now the minorities are unwilling to believe us even if we want to offer them welfare schemes. I am forced to tour all over the district to create awareness among them and explain the various schemes through which they could get assistance. So far I have travelled over 16,000 km. during the last three months and held 121 meetings, covering 16 districts. We are giving loans from Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 to traders and hawkers directly eliminating middlemen,'' Mr. Hussain said.

He said all applications of the corporation would be available free of cost to the beneficiaries and the offices would be located in the heart of the city or towns for easy access. In Visakhapatnam city too, it would be shifted from the industrial area to the heart of the city to serve the minorities better.

Budget up

Mr. Hussain said that the budget for the corporation was increased from Rs.22 crores last year to Rs.26 crores for the current year and with a Central assistance of Rs.8 crores there would be as much as Rs.34 crores at its disposal.

Visakhapatnam district, which used to get about Rs.26 lakhs annually, would now get Rs.56 lakhs. More funds would be released depending on the needs, he said.

Earlier in the morning, he distributed loans to the tune of Rs.14 lakhs to 119 beneficiaries.

Director of the corporation, B. Moses, vice-chairman Arif Khan, executive director P.S. Prabhakara Rao, Sk. Vali, and others were present during the press conference.

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