JEDDAH — Gulbarga NRI's felicitated Qamar ul Islam, Karnataka's Cabinet Minister for Municipality and Local Body, Minorities Welfare and Wakf Board, at a local restaurant here recently. Islam, who was on a short visit to the Kingdom, shed light on the budget allocation for Hyderabad Karnataka Development and highlighted the benefits of Article 371, which states that it will grant special status to six backward districts in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region with provision for reservation in education and jobs for locals. He also spoke about the success of Congress in the central and state government. He is confident that Congress will once again come to power in the upcoming elections as people of India want peace and love between all communities, and people of India will show their solidarity for the age-old party. The cabinet minister with around 40 years of experience said: “I am confident that work always speaks, Congress always believe in work and people will vote for work which was done by Congress.” Commenting on the problems faced by the minorities in India, Islam said: “We have worked a lot to solve our minorities' problems but still it remains. We will not compromise with communal forces who come in our way. These forces are dangerous as they affect the unity and integrity of the country; communalism is more dangerous than regionalism.” “My message to my Indian brothers living here is that don't compromise to any communal forces, and help Congress fight these communal forces. Send messages to your relatives in India and help them take the right decision,” he said. Islam also spoke about the developments in Wakf, briefly talking about its history and amendments made in 1995 and 2013, which were undertaken when Muslims realized that the Wakf Act is not strong enough to remove illegal encroachers. He said: “Waqf New act tells us survey work is to be completed within one year. It is mandatory. I want to tell our people here that Karnataka has completed 70 percent of the survey work and InshaAllah within one year we will complete it.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Islam said, is a dynamic personality and the schemes which he has implemented are very beneficial. “This coming election we will definitely get more than 25 seats out of 28 seats, though we are trying for all seats. Congress wants to walk together with love, with all, haters will not succeed,” he said. “We are confident that in Karnataka there is a wave of our chief minister, and Indians understand the achievements and this coming elections will show that Congress is the only big platform through which India can be shown as a secular, democratic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious social justice structure.” Saleem Khalifa, general secretary of Gulbarga charitable and welfare trust, highlighted the trust's social activities. He requested the minister to launch Indian Institute of Information (IIIT) to Gulbarga. He said: “Quality education is the need of the hour and we have realized that education standard in schools and colleges is in a bad shape and a lot of reforms are required. I personally request the minister to take interest in order to overhaul the education standard before it further spoils the future of the youth.” The program was anchored Syed Nasir Khurshid, vice president of Gulbarga Charitable and Welfare Trust. Saif Ustad proposed the vote of thanks and acknowledged the presence of Dr. Syed Anwar Khursheed, Saleh Siddiqui and Mirza Azam Baig, president of Gulbarga Charitable and Welfare Trust. Sponsors Afsar Ustad, Arif Khan, Dr. Shafiuddin and Nazar Khan were also duly thanked for making necessary arrangements for the event. Earlier, the Program started with recitation of a few verses from the Qur'an by Bilal followed by a Naat by Ahmed Raza.
