The funds for Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) in the Union budget 2022-23 was slashed by 99 percent compared to the previous year’s budget.
The Union Minority Affairs Ministry headed by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was allocated Rs 5,020.50 crore in the 2022-23 budget. The amount for this year is 209.73 crore more than the budget allocation made for the year 2021-2022. The budget estimate for the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the financial year 2021-22 was Rs 4,810.77 crore and later the revised allocation was Rs 4,346.45 crore.
However, despite the increased budget allocation for 2022-23, Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) suffered a significant cut. The foundation popular for promoting education among backward minorities with special reference to the Muslim community.
The funds for MAEF were brutally cut down from the last allocation of Rs 90 crore to 0.01 crore this year. Other victims of this year’s budget include “Skill development and livelihood’ program of minorities from a whopping 573 crore to 491.91 crore.
As reported by the New Indian Express, according to the minority affairs ministry, MAEF, is a “voluntary, non-political, non-profit making, social service organisation established to promote education among the educationally backward minorities.
The institute is named after freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He was towering figure on the Indian political scene and a scholar rated high in the realms of Urdu Literature.
