News Desk

Nagaland Government has created a separate cell for minority affairs under the Planning and Co-ordination Department to deal with minority issues of the state.

The Minority cell will look into the various schemes under the Ministry of Minority Affairs (GOI) that relate to the educational, economic, infrastructural and special needs of the minorities.

It will deal with scholarship schemes such as Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes and Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme. Several other schemes like Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), Naya Savera, Padho Pardesh and Nai Udaan which provide minority students with free coaching, interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas studies, etc.

The new minority cell will also take up the skill development programmes and other schemes for economic development of the minorities such as USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for Development), Nai Manzil, a scheme to provide education and skill training to the youth from Minority Communities and concessional credit through National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC).

Additionally, the cell is aimed to cater to schemes for special needs of minority women such as leadership development among women, Waqf management and research, monitoring and evaluation of other development schemes. It is to be noted that Haj management is also included in the duties’ list of the cell.

Moreover, minority cell will provide aid to Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), Equity to National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) and Grant-in-Aid Scheme to State Channelising Agencies of National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation.

As per a notification, an Officer of Planning Department will be assigned for its smooth functioning.

Reference: https://insidene.com/2019/09/20/nagaland-govt-creates-new-minority-affairs-cell/