By TwoCircles.net Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: In an attempt to benefit the minorities the state cabinet during its meeting on Tuesday took an important decision by earmarking 20 percent of target under various schemes for minorities. 85 schemes of 30 departments have been included under this scheme.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said that the state government was committed for the all round development of minorities (Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsi and Jains). He added that for a very long time owing to the economic, social and educational backwardness, a need was being felt to provide all types of facilities to the minorities to enable their assimilation into the social mainstream.
It may be pointed out here that the Sachar Committee which was constituted by the union government has inferred in its report that 22.7 per cent of Indian population was poor and among them, people from the minority community specially the Muslims were in large numbers.
In the urban areas too, 38.4 per cent minorities, specially Muslims were far behind in comparison to other segments. This percentage is much more than that of the scheduled castes and tribes.
It was also found that the Muslims were not getting the required benefits of welfare schemes run by the government as per their population. The Sachar Committee had also recommended that such schemes be run and formulated that the minority community could come at par with other sections of the society.
Akhilesh said without the overall development of the minorities, Uttar Pradesh cannot progress. He pointed out that as per the census of 2001, the Muslim population in the state was 19.33 per cent and added that the percentage of minorities living below the poverty line in the country was 25 per cent.
To ensure that the minorities are given enough opportunities to come at par with the mainstream the need of the hour was to have a special scheme, the Chief Minister further elaborated. To give the minorities their due right, it has been decided by the state cabinet today to execute a scheme by earmarking 20 per cent of targets in various welfare schemes implemented by the State Government.
Under this scheme 85 schemes being implemented by 30 departments will be included. The Chief Minister said that keeping in mind the minority population it has been decided to earmark such schemes which benefit special population/area/ward/village/habitation in a specific localised area.
With this objective the scheme is being proposed to be implemented in those areas where the ratio of minority population is minimum 25 per cent. For example boring of handpumps, establishment of Anganbadi Kendras, construction of rural link roads and other rural infrastructure apart from this, individually benefiting schemes viz-various social pension schemes, housing for urban and rural poor, Kanya Vidya Dhan, free boring will also be included.
Such schemes which cover the whole population and are wide ranging will be kept apart from this scheme. This include highways, over bridges, canals, roads, power generation, universities, community health centres, universal immunisation and Janani Suraksha Yojana.
Under this scheme, minorities will not be provided any relaxation in the norms/eligibility of any particular scheme. The norms and eligibility of various schemes being covered under this scheme will remain as per the original format.
While providing the details of implementation and monitoring of the scheme (to be executed for the benefit of the minorities) the Chief Minister said that a committee would be constituted under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary at the government level.
Similarly at the district level a committee would be formed under the chairmanship of the District Magistrate. With the objective of ensuring transparency and effective implementation of the scheme, two members of minority community would be nominated in each committee.
For transparency in the proposed scheme, an additional website in Hindi and Urdu would be uploaded at the state level. He said that the publicity of the benefits of the proposed new scheme would be ensured through attractive posters and handbills at public buildings like school, hospital, tehsil, bus station, railway station, apart from using the computer, electronic media and news papers.