Rs 25 crore for Minority Rural Areas Development Schemes; no funds for minorities development schemes
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai:“Disappointed” over the peanuts doled out for the minorities in its maiden budget for 2015-16, Muslim MLAs and community leaders from Maharashtra have termed the BJP-SS government as “anti-minority”.
State’s Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Wednesday presented the Rs 1,98,230.50 crore budget in the Legislative Assembly. It has an allocation of Rs 150 crore for Maulana Azad Finance Corporation (MAFC) and Rs 25 crore for the Minority Rural Areas Development Schemes.
Finance and Rural Development Deepak Kesarkar and State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar before the presentation of State Budget in Assembly in Mumbai on March 18, 2015 (Courtesy: DNA)
While there is an increase in allocation for MAFC by Rs 35 crores as compared with last year’s allocation, there is no mention of any specific schemes for the development of minorities, a point that has disappointed public representatives and community leaders.The allocation for minorities during the year 2014-15 was Rs 131 crore.
In contrast, the Congress-NCP coalition presented budget which allocated specific funds aimed at development of minorities in the state every year, albeit it left much to be desired when it came to utilisation of that fund.
Much to the chagrin of the minorities across Maharashtra – who are already antagonised due to the recent decisions of the state government about denying 5 % reservations to Muslims in educational institutions and ban on sale and even carrying/possession of meat of bulls and bullocks – the allocation for other marginalised communities is much more and directly points to, what the community leaders have described as, “discrimination.”
Mungantiwar has allocated a special component plan worth Rs 6,490 crore for the scheduled castes (SCs) and the tribal (STs) sub-plan of Rs 5,170 crore. The budget has also announced an allocation of Rs 1451.50 crore as special assistance for the BPL families.
As per the 2001 Census and considering the decadal population growth, Muslims form 10.6 % of the population in Maharashtra; the SCs form 12% while the STs form just 9% of the total population. This is where the discrimination comes out starkly.
While there is no denying that the SCs and the STs do need this huge allocation under social sector, the BJP government has made no comparable allocation – it is nil actually – for Muslims. Rs 150 crores has been allocated for the MAFC and Rs 25 crores for the Minority Rural Areas, sending a signal that the government appears to be least worried about upliftment of Muslims in the state. Whatever allocation is mentioned against SCs and STs is for their development while there is nothing for the minority development. MAFC is not a welfare fund, instead it is a dedicated loan account for the needy from the minority community.
Elected representatives unhappy
“There was no announcement to upgrade the social, education and economic status of minorities and especially Muslims in the state,” said AIMIM MLA Imtiaz Jaleel. By granting a meagre sum of Rs 25 crore for 440 villages that have a minority population of more than 50 %, the government has tried to fool the community, he said.
“There is no mention of overall development of minorities and especially about their education,” Jaleel added.
Abu Asim Azmi, Samajwadi Party MLA and state party chief, said, “Considering the backwardness and hardships through which minorities in the state are surviving, the government should have brought some schemes for their development but the government neglected minorities but introduced schemes only for other sectors.”
Aggrieved with the non-allotment of budget towards development of minorities in the state, Amin Patel, INC MLA criticised the BJP government as anti-Muslim and said, “By not allocating fund for Muslims’ development, this government has time and again expresses its enmity towards it.”
Waris Pathan (Courtesy:Twitter)
Another AIMIM MLA advovate Waris Pathan said even after Chief Minister Fadnavis announced fast track courts for terrorism related cases, there is no mention of funds for establishment of such courts.
“There are many Muslim youths languishing in jails since many years as they are implicated in terror cases and there is a need of fast track courts to deliver speedy justice. The budget finds no place for institution of fast track courts even though the chief minister had said in the assembly of setting up such courts.”
There Finance Minister announced development of Muslim populated localities of Malegaon, Bhiwandi and Meeraj, said Asif Shaikh, INC MLA, “but the budget lacks specific funds for the purpose.”
“Also, the budget is silent on reducing electricity rates. Clearly, the government has not considered the hardships of textile workers in the state, who mostly belong to Muslim community,” he added.
Arif Naseem Khan, INC MLA termed BJP government budget as “bogus and anti-minority” and said, “Ever since the establishment of Minority Department in the state,the Congress allocated crores of rupees for the development of minorities but this budget has allocated nothing.”
“This government has crossed all limits and once again displayed its anti-Muslim face by totally neglecting development of minorities in the budget,” he added.
Community leaders’ reactions
Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi, general secretary of All India Ulama Council first discredited the previous Congress-NCP coalition for not fulfilling their announcement at the time of establishment of MAFC of allocating Rs 500 crore in each budget as it never allocated this much amount. He then criticised the BJP-SS government in not fulfilling its pre-poll slogan of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’.
“Minorities in the state had some expectations from the changed government that it would practically prove to be better than the previous government but by not allocating budget for development of minorities, it has flattened our expectations,”he said.
Gulzar Azmi
Gulzar Azmi, secretary legal cell of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind compared minority allotted budget with special allocation for development of scheduled castes and for Kumbh Mela (Rs 2378 crore) and said, “In its first budget itself,the BJPgovernment has cancelled budgetary allocation for minority development unlike previous governments.This is a budget for all but Muslims.”
Mahmoodur Rahman, a social activist, disapproved the budget terming it to be lollypop for the Muslims and said, “It is amply clear from number of Commissions’ findings that Muslims are economically and socially backward and are even way behind other communities but despite this, the present government’s carelessness towards Muslim community is disappointing.”
(With inputs from Sahafat)
Related:
Maharashtra Budget: Rs 131 Crore for Muslims, Rs 2378 Crore for Kumbh Mela in Nashik