Lucknow: UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be presiding over the meeting of the Minority Affairs Ministers of North Indian states, in Lucknow on January 18.
The Minority affairs ministers from states UP, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh have been invited.
The meeting will also be attended by the Union Ministry of Minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The decision to allow Yogi Adityanath to preside over the meeting has been taken to counter the opposition charges that he is a saffron exclusivist and a street fighter.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that “We shall discuss how minority communities can be empowered without appeasement.”
He also said that “Agenda of the meeting is development with dignity,” and added that “Regional meetings with welfare of the minorities as its agenda is yet another initiative reflecting the government’s commitment to empower minority communities.”
Referring to the development that took place in last three years, Naqvi said that “More than 8.5 lakh minority youths have been given jobs in the past three years…recent launch of the GST facilitator course at the skill development centres were quite satisfying as most of the trained individuals landed jobs immediately.”