By IANS,
Kolkata : Defending her decision to give honorarium to imams in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said the move was guided by socio-economic conditions of the clergymen.
“The decision is not a populist measure but has been guided by the socio-economic conditions of the imams and the minority community,” she said at a cultural event here.
“The religious leaders are held in high esteem and their help can be taken to spread awareness on a number of social issues,” she said.
Banerjee said the government was making arrangements to provide funds to the State Wakf Board, which would then make the payments to the imams.
“The state government cannot distribute it (the honorariums) because of certain legal issues,” she said.
Banerjee had Feb 6 announced a monthly honorarium of Rs.2,500 to around 30,000 imams in the state. The move had drawn criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The BJP has also filed a public interest litigation against the move in the Calcutta High Court.
Banerjee said that the government would soon pass in the state assembly a bill for providing reservations to Muslims in government jobs and higher education under the category of Other Backward Classes (OBC).
“Most of the minorities, about 90 percent of them, will be covered under the 17 percent reservation under the OBC category,” she said.