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Allocation for minorities doubled

NEW DELHI: Working on the premise of inclusive growth, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday announced a doubling of the allocation for the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. This is to facilitate the implementation of the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community.

Mr. Chidambaram said the allocation for the Ministry would go up from Rs.500 crore to Rs.1,000 crore. The schemes that the government plans to fund with this enhanced allocation include a multi-sectoral development plan for each of the 90 minority concentration districts. While the plan totals Rs. 3,780 crore, the allocation for the next fiscal has been set at Rs.540 crore.

Add to this a pre-matric scholarship with an allocation of Rs.80 crore and a scheme for modernising ‘madrassa’ education for which Rs. 45.45 crore has been set aside.

Referring to the opening up of 256 branches of public sector banks in districts with a substantial minority population during the last calendar year, he said the process would continue with 288 more such branches to be opened by the close of this fiscal.

The Minister also has plans to provide Rs. 60 crore to enhance the corpus fund of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) — a voluntary organisation established to promote education among educationally backward minorities. Interest on the corpus fund is the only income for the foundation. Additionally, Mr. Chidambaram said, the government would continue recruiting more candidates belonging to the minority communities in the Central paramilitary forces.

Though many of these measures are being proposed as a follow-up to the Sachar Committee report, Ministry officials sought to point out that all the five communities notified as minorities were eligible for the minority-oriented programmes.

Amid protests that the allocations were not enough, the Minister said that he had provided Rs.3,966 crore for schemes benefiting Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) exclusively. And, another Rs. 18,983 crore for schemes, where at least 20 per cent of the benefits went to SCs/STs.

Seeking to increase its stake in the various development and finance corporations that have been set up for different disadvantaged groups, the government plans to contribute additional equity to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, the three national finance and development corporations for weaker sections comprising ‘safai karamcharis,’ SCs and backward classes, the national/state Scheduled Tribes finance and development corporations, and the National Handicapped Development Corporation. Together, this would cost the exchequer Rs. 240.5 crore.

Text of Finance Minister's speech

Union Budget - Photo Gallery

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