Minorities to get 15% of rural min's key funds

The prime minister's call for equitable resources for minorities, especially Muslims, seems to have gone down well with the rural development ministry.

As part of the prime minister's 15-point programme for minorities, the rural development ministry has recognised three major programmes under which it plans to earmark 15 per cent resources for minorities.

These are Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) and Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).

"We are very much committed to minority welfare. As part of that, we have earmarked 15 per cent resources for minorities under these programmes," Minister of Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasasd Singh told Business Standard.

This follows an advise by the minority affairs ministry, the nodal agency for the 15-point programme.

The rural development ministry has set aside Rs 290 crore under SGRY and Rs 581 crore under IAY for minorities during 2006-07.

Apart from this, more than 1.6 lakh swarozgaris from minority communities will be helped under SGSY and more than 2.3 lakh houses will be constructed for them during the period.

Under SGRY, 15 per cent share of district and intermediate panchayats in each state may be provided for minorities. The ministry has decided that the decision to further distribute funds for minorities in each district may be left to state governments.

According to sources, all the programme divisions have ben advised to revise their guidelines and monitoring formats.

But the ministry still has to come out with exclusive programmes for minorities, as envisaged in the minority programme.

"At present we do not have programmes which are exclusive for minority communities. Our stress is on seeing that minorities receive a good share of resources in various programmes that the ministry is running," the minister said.