‘State govt. has responded positively to demand for Jain Vihardham and development council’

National president of All India Jain Minority Federation Lalit Gandhi has said that the State government had positively responded to the demand for the construction of Bhagwan Rushabhdev Jain Vihardham for Jain monks and also agreed to consider setting up Jain Development Council for the development and welfare of the community.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Lalit Gandhi said that a delegation of the federation had a fruitful interaction with Minister for Minority Welfare and Textiles Shrimanth Balasaheb Patil recently and the State government had agreed to allow the construction of the Vihardham and the constitution of the development council.

Praising the BJP-led State government for being number one in implementing minority welfare schemes in the country, he said that several demands had been fulfilled by the State government earlier also.

Mr. Lalit Gandhi said that the federation had appealed to the State government to implement the Union government’s National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) loan schemes for helping young entrepreneurs from the minority committee in setting up startups.

Idol maintenance

Mr. Lalit Gandhi said that during various excavations, the Archaeological Survey of India had been unearthing various idols pertaining to Jain religion and the idols were being kept in storerooms. “Our religious practices are different and if the idols are given to us, we will worship them and maintain them properly in accordance with ASI rules,” he said.

He said that there were several lacunae in the 2011 census with regard to computation of the population of Jains in the country. The 2011 census had recorded only 45 lakh Jains in the country, while in reality there were over two crore of Jains in the country. He said that probably mention of sub-caste and gothras in the data sheets might have led to the wrong calculation and appealed to members of the community to mention Jain in the religion column during the 2021 census.

Mr. Lalit Gandhi said that the federation had also sought an increase in the income limit under the reservation policy so that members from the community benefit. “However, the government is reluctant as it would mean more fund allocation,” he said.

Regarding the annual income limit of ₹8 lakh for beneficiaries under 10% reservation for economically weaker communities of upper caste, he said that the federation’s demand for increase in income limit was based on the same criteria.

Jain community leader Mahendra Singhi said that as there was none from the community in the State as well as Central Cabinets, they had sought representation in the Cabinet for elected representatives of the community.

Emphasising the need for including the community under 2B category of Other Backward Classes in Karnataka, he said that they had to fight with 42 different communities for a share of 5% in reservation under 3B category.

National secretary of the federation Sandeep Bandhari was present.