The BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh government is running a financial assistance scheme to help poor families among the OBCs to get their daughters married but left out the minorities among this category, an Opposition leader said in the Rajya Sabha
on Thursday.

The issue raised by Samajwadi Party leader Javed Ali Khan during Zero Hour has come at a time when the state government has asked owners of eateries and shops along the Kanwar Path to display their names on their outlets.

Khan said the scheme snub to minorities was a violation of constitutional provisions since the Anya Pichda Varg (Alpsankhyak Pichda Varg Chhod Kar) ke Garib Vyaktio ki Putriyo ki Shaadi Anudaan Yojana does not allow the OBCs among the religious minorities to apply.

The OBCs are not about any caste. Communities, which are socially and educationally backward, have been included in the list irrespective of religion.

When Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he started two schemes to provide financial assistance for the marriage of girls from poor OBC families. One scheme was meant for OBCs among minority communities and the other for OBCs excluding the minority communities.

After the Yogi Adityanath government came to power in 2017, it discontinued the scheme meant for minorities and did not include them in the other scheme. As a result, poor minority families were unable to take advantage of the scheme, Khan told
The Telegraph.

The scheme is reviewed at the district level every year and district collectors call the MPs for such meetings. Khan was invited to a meeting last year where he objected to the provisions of the scheme.

In the House, Khan said that according to the Constitution, India is a welfare State and a secular nation. It is expected that the State will work for the backward and will not discriminate against persons based on religion, he said.

“I got a letter from the district authorities for a meeting. It was called to review a scheme. The scheme of the UP government stated that it was meant for poor OBCs excluding minorities. The OBC list has been prepared by the Mandal Commission. Every state has its own OBC list. The OBC list includes people from all religions,” he said.

“If any scheme is implemented excluding minorities and Muslims, this is discrimination and aimed at creating hatred,” he said.

Khan said he boycotted the meeting and spoke with the state’s social welfare minister, Narendra Kashyap. He said he could not reproduce in the House what Kashyan told him.