By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indian government Thursday approved three new schemes that would provide drinking water and better urban infrastructure in the areas that houses minority communities.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni informed reporters that the schemes are included in the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme. “These schemes will be monitored carefully,” she said.
The decision to include these schemes in the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities – that was launched in 2006 with the idea to provide government schemes to the underprivileged section of the minority communities – was taken at the cabinet meeting that was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
These three schemes are National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) of the Department of Drinking Water and Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) and Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) scheme of the Ministry of Urban Development.
The union cabinet also approved inclusion of Mewat district in Rajasthan in place of Gurgaon in Haryana as one of the minority concentration districts.
A decision was also taken to include legislators and district level committee members for monitoring the implementation of the 15-point programme.
“There has been a steady improvement in the recruitment of minorities in the central government and the public sector undertakings (PSUs) since issuing of guidelines by the Department of Personnel and Training Jan 8, 2007 for giving special consideration to the recruitment of minorities,” a statement issued here said.
It said that the percentage of recruitment of minorities which stood at 6.95 percent in 2006-07 went up to 8.22 percent in 2007-08 and was 9.18 percent in 2008-09.