Srinagar, June 23: Declaring there is was no need to establish a Minority Commission in the state, Minister for Social Welfare, ARI & Training and Science & Technology, Sajjad Gani Lone today said that no Community has been declared as Minority by the State. Mr. Sajjad Gani Lone is a cabinet minister from BJP quota in Jammu Kashmir PDP-BJP coalition government.

“It is Muslims of Kashmir who needs to merge into the mainstream of India, they need incentives and a healing touch as they have suffered a lot”, the minister said in the Legislative Council while responding to queries of BJP legislators during Question Hour on setting up a minority commission and minority status for Hindus and Sikhs of the state.

“It is time Muslims of Kashmir are merged into the national mainstream of India,” the minister asserted. He was responding to clubbed questions of MLCs Vibodh Gupta, Dharambir Singh and Charanjeet Singh. Lone rejected the BJP legislators’ demand for declaring Hindus as a minority in Jammu and Kashmir, saying declaring minorities was the domain of the Centre. The BJP members demanded that Hindus and Sikhs be granted minority status in the state. “Such demands will add fire. Jammu has a Hindu majority and Kashmir has a Muslim majority. We cannot declare minorities at block levels and have to follow national criteria,” Lone said. The minister’s rejection angered BJP legislators, who stood up from their seats and demanded that Hindus be declared as minority in J&K. Vibodh Gupta tried to walk to the well of the House in protest. “I think that it is a conspiracy. It is a human rights violation for Hindus that despite being in a minority, they are not getting the benefits given to minorities. It is injustice,” he said. Charanjeet Singh said the PDP had promised in its election manifesto that it would give minority status to Sikhs. “But the government is silent on the issue,” he said. Earlier, in a written reply to the clubbed questions, Lone said no community had been declared a minority community by the state. “Community-wise percentage in the state of communities declared minorities at the national level is 68.31 per cent Muslims, 1.87 per cent Sikhs, 0.28 per cent Christians, 0.9 per cent Buddhists and 0.02 per cent Jains,” he said.

He said that Rs 7.50 crore have been received from 2013 to 2016 under Multi Sectoral Development Program (MSPD) from the Centre, out of which Rs 5.06 crore has been utilized. Similarly, an amount of Rs 33.93 crores have been received by Women’s Development Corporation from National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) from 2013-16 and has been utilized fully.

The Minister further said that under Pre/Post Matric and Merit cum Means scholarships an amount of Rs 180.87 crore has been received from 2013-16 and has been distributed fully to the students belonging to minorities.