Union Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju inaugurated the sixth edition of Lok Samvardhan Parv at Parade Ground, Dehradun, on Saturday, 11 July 2026, marking a significant milestone in the Centre's minority welfare outreach under the PM VIKAS scheme. The event was attended by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and a host of senior state and central officials.

Context

The inauguration was notable for a first: Uttarakhand became the first state in India to partner with the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs in organising Lok Samvardhan Parv under the Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) scheme. Rijiju, who also holds the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, was joined at the dais by Uttarakhand's Minister for Social Welfare, Minority Welfare, Student Welfare and Language, Khajan Dass, along with senior officials from the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) and state-level minority bodies.

Among those present were Dr. Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary of MoMA; Dr. Abha Rani Singh, CMD of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC); and Shams Shadab, Chairman of the Uttarakhand Waqf Board. The broad cross-section of officials underlined the event's intent to bring convergence between central and state-level minority welfare machinery.

Policy Backdrop

Lok Samvardhan Parv is organised under the PM VIKAS scheme, which was restructured and approved in 2022-23 by integrating earlier minority welfare components into a unified framework focused on heritage preservation, skill training, and infrastructure development for notified minority communities. The scheme is administered by MoMA and channelled through bodies such as the NMDFC, which provides credit and enterprise support at the grassroots level.

Successive editions of Lok Samvardhan Parv have served as a platform to demonstrate convergence between the central ministry and state departments on education, skill development, and cultural preservation. Dehradun's Parade Ground, a prominent public venue in the Uttarakhand capital, provided a high-visibility setting for the sixth edition.

Stakeholders and Impact

The event brought together the full spectrum of Uttarakhand's minority welfare institutional architecture — from the Uttarakhand State Haj Committee, chaired by Khateeb Ahmed, to the Uttarakhand State Minority Education Authority, chaired by Dr. Surjeet Singh Gandhi, and the Uttarakhand Minority Welfare and Waqf Development Corporation, headed by Managing Director Deepti Singh. The presence of Baljeet Singh Soni, Vice Chairman of the Uttarakhand Minority Commission, further reflected the breadth of state-level engagement.

For minority communities in Uttarakhand — a Himalayan state with a relatively smaller but diverse minority population — the partnership signals direct access to central scheme benefits, skill programmes, and heritage initiatives that have previously been concentrated in states with larger minority demographics.

What's Next

Uttarakhand's precedent as the first state partner for Lok Samvardhan Parv under PM VIKAS is likely to be cited by MoMA as a template for replication in other states. Attention will now turn to the rollout of specific PM VIKAS projects approved or announced at the event, and to which state will host the seventh edition of Lok Samvardhan Parv. The broader trajectory of PM VIKAS implementation across remaining states will be a key indicator of how far the Centre's minority welfare outreach expands in the coming months.