The Hindu
BANGALORE, Mar 6: Minister for Wakf and Minority Welfare Mumtaz Ali Khan has said he has written to Home Minister V.S. Acharya to order a probe into reported ban imposed on wearing the “burkha” by Muslim girls of the Government Composite Pre-University College at Panja village in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Dr. Khan said he had also written to the Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) seeking action against some private engineering colleges which had reportedly banned wearing of “burkha” in colleges. Introduction of uniform for college students would put an end to the controversy on the dress code, he said.
The Minister said that wearing “burkha” was a personal choice of Muslims girls and nobody had the right to ban it. Nearly 80 to 90 per cent of Muslim girls were not wearing “burkha” nowadays and if the present trend continues, the practice would totally vanish in the next 10 years, he said.
Muslim girls of the Government Composite Pre-University College at Panja have been reportedly banned from wearing the “burkha” by the local Hindutva outfits and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Dr. Khan said the department had suggested to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri to give preference to Kannada-speaking candidates in the recruitment of teachers for Urdu medium schools. Nearly 3,000 posts of Kannada teacher were vacant in Urdu schools, he said.
Stating that Rs. 167 crore had been allocated in the State Budget for 2009-10 for the welfare of minorities, he said funds would be utilised for construction of students’ hostels in schools and universities.
Around 60 “Shaadi Mahals” would be constructed at a cost of Rs. 15 crore, he said.
The department had also decided to modernise the functioning “madrasas” with teaching of mathematics, computer science, Kannada and English languages. Now, many of the “madrasas” teach only Arabic, he said.