New Delhi [India], Sept. 29 : Centre will today launch Progress Panchayat to reach out to the minority community and publicise the various welfare measures taken by the NDA government for their betterment.

Minister of State for Minority Affairs (independent charge) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will kick-start the programme from Mewat region of Haryana. The programme will be organised in 100 places across the country in the coming days where union ministers will interact with people about the several schemes.

Besides holding the panchayat, Naqvi will also inaugurate a 100-bed hostel building for girls at Hathni in Palwal and staff quarters at schools in Nuh and Nagina. He will also lay the founding stone for a model school in Chilwali.

The special outreach programme comes days after Prime Minister Modi's remarks quoting BJP idealogue Deen Dayal Upadhyay during party meet in Kerala, that the community must be empowered and not treated only as items of the vote market. (ANI)