By TCN News,
Thiruvananthapuram: The Madrasa Teachers Welfare Fund will be implemented interest-free, said Minister Paloli Muhammed Kutty in the Kerala Assembly yesterday. He added that measures have been taken to implement the Welfare Fund removing its drawbacks.
The number of applications for the Welfare Fund was less as some Madrasa committees did not provide the necessary certificates to submit the application. As per the demand that the fund should be made interest-free, a new instruction has been given to remit the fees at the post offices. Earlier, the fees had to be remitted at the cooperative banks, which raised doubts as to whether the fund would not be interest-free. The allowances will be given by the government via the treasury, the minister added.
The Welfare Fund was introduced by the state government for Madrasa teachers as per a suggestion of the Paloli Committee, which looked into how the Sachar Committee recommendations could be implemented in Kerala. However, ever since it was known that the Fund would be functioning via cooperative banks, Madrasa teachers as well as Muslim leaders and organizations expressed their concern on the possible inclusion of interest in the fund. Strong demand was raised to make the fund interest-free. The same concern was raised by a meeting in which the Paloli Committee members and representatives of Muslim organizations took part on January 6, 2011 in Kozhikode. The meeting unanimously agreed upon making the fund interest-free. It had also analysed that the fund received only poor welcome in the state where there was a large number of Madrasas and teachers.