Saleem says the SPQEM scheme was initially being paid for by the Centre, however, in recent years was transferred to the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA). “The scheme was running well under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, no one knows what occurred to them, they transferred it to MOMA and MOMA couldn’t run it. A few years later, Yogi Adityanath received a letter from the centre, it said the centre could no longer pay the salaries in full and asked the state to pay 40 per cent and they would pay 60 per cent. This arrangement of shared payment was to come into effect from 2018-19. The state government actually agreed and passed the budget as well.”