Senior Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and union minister of minority affairs, Najma Heptulla today highlighted the achievements of first year of BJP government in the country.While addressing party workers in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, Ms Heptulla said the BJP has launched many important schemes during this period to benefit various communities across the country.Highlighting the achievements of BJP, she said in the first year of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all the promises made to the people have been fulfilled.“We have been successful in conducting fair auction of coal resources by earning Rs two lakh crores for the country, fair auction of telecom auction,” the minister said, adding, important programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the ‘Make in India’ campaign and education scholarships through the Pradhan Mantri Vidyalakshmi Karyakram.
She also said that her ministry involves entire India; the focus has been on ensuring skill development programs for the upliftment of downtrodden and poor people. "My ministry has distributed one crore scholarships belonging to the minority communities under various centrally-sponsored schemes under the BJP government," she said, adding, the scholarship amount is credited directly into the bank account of the students.The minister added:"Under the scheme of ‘Naya Savera’, financial support for free coaching to prepare minority students for competitive examination for professional courses and government jobs were made possible."
Listing out the benefits of another scheme, ‘Nai Udaan’, she said the financial support of Rs 2.96 crores was disbursed to support the candidate who qualified preliminary examination conducted by UPSC and state public commissions.
"The scheme of ‘Padho Pardesh’ was operationalised during 2014-15. Under this scheme, 573 students received interest subsidy amounting to Rs. 3.50 crore.Under free coaching and allied scheme including new component (intensive coaching along with classes for students 11th and 12th with science Subject), 8118 candidates have been covered incurring an expenditure of Rs. 31.34 crore," she said.The union minister was also accompanied by State Minister for Transport, Abdul Gani Kohli , BJP’s state general secretary (Org) Ashok Kaul, G.M Mir state vice president and north kashmir president D.K Nehru.While addressing the gathering, Kohli said the government is focusing on development of weaker sections of the society for which a number of reformative measures are being initiated at various levels. (GNS)