“The ‘Mysore Fateha Fund’ constituted in the 19 Century in which around 50 crores was given by the then British Government for the welfare of the minority community, has been lost”, claimed Mr Javed Khan, state minister for disaster management department, today.

The minister was speaking during a scholarship distribution ceremony of Haji Mohd. Mohsin Endowment Fund Scholarship to meritorious students of Alim Examination, High Madrasah Examination and Madhyamik Examination of the minority community.

“There is a ‘Mysore Fateha Fund’ that was constituted in the 19 Century, in which around 50 crores was given by the then British government during the imprisonment of Tipu Sultan,” informed the minister.

“The custodian of the fund was the district magistrate or collector of 24 Parganas. Since then the fund has been missing. The fund value if calculated today would be around 800 to 900crores. Although we have few documents related to it we are unable to find out where the fund has vanished. We tried to find the whereabouts of the amount but after facing certain hurdles, it is left pending. The West Bengal government does not know about it,” he added.

The minister further pointed out, “A big problem is that also we have large ‘waqf’ properties but it is being improperly utilised. If streamlined and used properl, it can be used for the welfare of the minority community.” Mr Khan, emphasising on education, said, “The day the members of the minority community get educated, nobody will be able to lynch us in mobs. will be able to save our rights by means of education.”

With similar assertions, Mr Firahd Hakim, mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, said, “Many say that our community is a backward community. Due to political reasons, we had been deprived of education for some time. But today there is a new wave and soon the ‘backward community’ concept will become history.Meanwhile, a total of 107 students of the minority community were distributed with a scholarship of rupees 20,000 each to mark the 287 birth anniversary of Haji Mohd. Mohsin, the eminent philanthropist.