Scope for doing more for minorities exists: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today regretted that the government's initiatives to improve the lot of the minorities could not be communicated to the people while stressing that the scope of doing more exists.
Noting that the UPA government has worked a lot towards implementing the recommendations of Sachar Committee, he said, "I have to say with sadness that this could not reach the people."
He was responding to a question as to why the benefits of the schemes intended for minorities were not reaching them.
There has been talk that Congress' grip over minorities has slipped as results of the recently concluded Assembly elections showed their candidates doing badly even in seats where there was good number of minority votes.

At a time when issues like reservation for minorities as well as that of granting SC/ST status to Muslims were pending before courts, Singh said, "This is also true that there are some measures which are yet to be taken up.
"Some issues are pending before courts. Some problems have cropped up due to which certain measures could not be implemented...."

Singh, however, listed measures like scholarships to minority students and special development schemes for them undertaking by the UPA government under the Prime Minister's new 15-point programme.
"Scholarships for minorities have gone up tremendously, Maulana Azad Fellowship has increased substantially and the programme for multi-disciplinary approaches in 90 minority- concentrated districts of our country have been put in place. So enough has been done but I would be the last person to say there is no scope for doing more," the Prime Minister told a press conference here.

In the report card on UPA's ten years released on the occasion, the government said that it has always accorded high priority to their welfare and pointed out that there has been a "ten-fold increase" in the expenditure on minorities since 2004-05, when UPA came to power.