Mamata Increases Stipends for Imams and Purohits in Bengal

At the point when Mamata Banerjee is supposed to be worried about a disintegration in the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Muslim vote base, she declared an expansion in the month to month recompense for Muslim ministers and offset it out with an expansion in the payment for Hindu clerics (purohits).

Banerjee made the declaration at a gathering of imams and muezzins at Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Arena on Monday. "Our ability is restricted. I would demand to build their (imams and muezzins) stipends by Rs 500 every month. We will likewise build the stipend of purohits by Rs 500 every month," Banerjee said, adding that her common certifications are frequently addressed at whatever point she goes to programs coordinated by strict minorities. There are around 30,000 imams and 20,000 muezzins in the state who get monetary guide from the public authority.

As of now, imams get Rs 2,500 every month while muezzins get Rs 1,000, a payment that the public authority previously declared in 2012. After eight years, a year prior to the state went to Gathering surveys and confronted with a rising BJP, Banerjee declared a month to month recompense of Rs 1,000 and free lodging for 8,000 poor Sanatan Brahmin clerics in the state. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) boss has additionally been giving Durga Puja boards sops and help before the celebration.

"Cash is being spent to spread scorn among networks in the country. The BJP is financing to prompt mutual pressure in front of the Lok Sabha surveys I'm against any type of hostility in view of religion," Banerjee said at the gathering.

Recently, in February, the TMC lost a bypoll in Sagardighi in Murshidabad region to the Congress, showing a slide in hold over Muslims in a voting demographic was viewed as its fortress. This set alerts ringing and the next month Banerjee affected a progression of changes in the party's minority initiative. set up a five-part panel headed by state serve Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who is likewise the state leader of the Jamiat Ulema-I-Rear, and provided him with the obligation of Malda, Murshidabad, and Dakshin Dinajpur locale, which are all minority-ruled. The Jamiat has profound roots among the Bengali-speaking Muslims of the state. Banerjee likewise brought down the profile of Firhad Hakim, additionally a pastor, by removing his obligation regarding Murshidabad, Howrah and Hooghly. Hakim is recognized as a Urdu-speaking Muslim pioneer.

This was the CM's affirmation of a break between the primarily rustic Bengali-speaking Muslims and predominantly metropolitan Urdu-talking co-religionists, and the previous' move towards the Indian Mainstream Front (ISF) drove by Furfura Sharif pastor Peerzada Abbas Siddiqui that had moved the Congress in Sagardighi.

The worry was not unwarranted as the panchayat races in July outlined. According to the last count given by the State Political decision Commission, the ISF won 336 seats across the state — 325 of them gram panchayat seats, 10 panchayat samiti ones, and one zilla parishad seat. This showed the proceeded with disintegration of the TMC's Muslim vote in pockets in West Bengal.