Saturday, June 11 2005 18:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) today (Jun 11, 2005) sought to woo the minorities by demanding ten per cent reservation in Government jobs as also quota for them in State Assemblies and Lok Sabha.

Addressing a Minorities Conference of his Party, LJP President and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Mandal Commission had not earmarked any reservation for the minority communities and they did not have any seats allocated for them in the State Assemblies and Lok Sabha.

The meeting adopted a resolution with demanded job reservation for the backward Muslims under Article 341 of the Constitution.

A demand was also made for raising the grant to the Maulana Azad Foundation from Rs 70 crore to Rs 500 crore so that it could function better in the field of providing education to students belonging to the minority communities.

The resolution also demanded doubling of the grant to the Minority Financial Development Corporation to Rs 1,000 crore.

Paswan welcomed the Government's decision to reserve 50 per cent seats for minorities in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and demanded that Muslim universities should be opened in all States and the portrait of the AMU founder Syed Ahmed Khan be unveiled in the Central Hall of Parliament.

He also that those who still continued to be detained under POTA in Gujarat should be released forthwith and salary arrears to Madrasas teachers should be paid expeditiously.