The Hindu : National : `Muslims entitled to reservation'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006

National

National

`Muslims entitled to reservation'

Special Correspondent

Move to set up separate schools for Muslim girls

Arjun Singh

NEW DELHI: Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said on Wednesday that Muslims were entitled to reservation under the Constitution. Replying to a reporter's question on whether the Government had plans to reserve some seats for the backward Muslims within the 27 per cent seats reserved for the Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions, Mr. Singh said there was no move to give reservation to anyone on the basis of religion.

There was a Constitutional basis for granting reservation and Muslims could also be granted reservation under the same provisions, he said. The Constitution provides for reservation on the basis of backwardness. The Andhra Pradesh High Court has already struck down proposals for granting reservation on the basis of religion.

Addressing the press at the end of a two-day meeting of the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities Education here, Mr. Singh said granting rights to minority institutions had become difficult and taking everything into account we thought we should have a Central law. There is also a proposal to set up separate schools for Muslim girls. The Ministry will also encourage training of Urdu teachers. For this, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Maulana Azad Urdu University have agreed to set up separate academies.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National