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Kerala’s welfare measures for BPL families, Muslims

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to distribute 20 lakh free kits to families living below the poverty line during the Onam season.

It also cleared a few welfare measures for Muslims, including a pension scheme for ‘madrasa’ teachers.

Briefing mediapersons on the Cabinet decisions, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said each Onam kit, costing about Rs.50, would have two kg of rice besides sugar, tea and chilly.

The Chief Minister announced that 5,000 Muslim girls would be given scholarships for degree and post-graduate studies as per the recommendations of the Paloli committee, which examined the report of the Sachar committee on welfare of minorities.

The amount would range from Rs.3,000 to 5,000. Besides, the government would provide stipend to Muslim students to stay in hostels to attend coaching classes for competitive examinations.

Training centres would be set up for them on the lines of the pre-examination training centres for Scheduled Tribes.

A welfare fund would be set up for teachers of madrasas for providing them pensions and other benefits. The fund would be constituted with contributions from the teachers, madrasas and the Wakf Board.

The Cabinet sanctioned Rs. 45 crore for acquiring land for the second phase of development of the new terminal at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Homoeo dispensaries would be set up at three locations in Kochi city.

The Cabinet had asked the Law Department to look into the possibility of a legislation to prevent cyber crimes. The State had to be vigilant about the use of international networks by extremists. The department would examine whether something could be done to check the use of such networks for criminal activities.

The police were on alert about the presence of Students Islamic Movement of India activists in the State.

Asked about the Kuttanad package, he said there were divergent reports from New Delhi about the aid under the package. He would comment after studying the package.

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