India-Minorities-Sonia Gandhi
United Progressive Alliance Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, while noting that minorities need much greater access to professional education, Saturday said that the government would open 370 colleges in educationally-backward districts, a large number of which have a substantial concentration of minority population.
Addressing the Eighth Convocation of the Jamia Hamdard University in New Delhi, Sonia said, "The UPA Government has recognized that minorities in particular need much greater access to professional education and modern skill training."
Stressing the need to improve the quality of education institutions, Gandhi said, "I believe it is the fundamental responsibility of the government to provide education and with increasing enrollment, we must also improve the quality of all educational institutions."
Commending the Jamia Hamdard University for its role in providing higher education, Gandhi noted her family's long association with its founder Hakeem Abdul Hameed.
"Hakim Sahab's memory is particularly dear to us not only because he symbolized the ideal of communal harmony, but also because he was ever-conscious of his larger social responsibilities," she said.
Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh, who was also present at the Convocation, said the university has emerged as an outstanding institution for higher education and commended the role played by it in providing integrated studies in medicine.
Haryana Governor A R Kidwai and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar were awarded honorary Doctorate in Science by the university at the convocation.
Utilizing the occasion, university Vice Chancellor Shamim Ahmad asked the government to increase funding for it, saying the amount of support fixed, was not enough.
He demanded that the total funding of the university should be done by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Ahmad noted that the university is setting up Hamdard Institute of Medical Science, which has been included in the institution's proposals for the 11th Five Year Plan.
