Minority Ministry spent about 98% of 11th Plan funds: Khurshid

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By TCN News,

New Delhi: Mr. Salman Khurshid, Minister of Minority Affairs, has said his ministry has spent about 98% of the allocated funds of 11th Five Year Plan. He said it while addressing the two-day
National Conference of State Ministers for Minority Welfare which ended here on 8th June.

Addressing the Conference, Mr. Khurshid said that in spite of the fact that the Ministry of Minority Affairs was a relatively young Ministry, the achievements over the Eleventh Plan was significant. Against an allocation of Rs. 7,000 crore in the Eleventh Plan, the total expenditure of the Ministry was Rs. 6826.24 crore.

The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs held the 2-day National Conference to review the achievements of Eleventh Plan and finalize the strategy and schemes for Twelfth Plan period in consultation with States/ UTs.

Union Minister for Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Mr. Salman Khurshid interacting with the media after inaugurating the National Conference of State Ministers for Minority Welfare, in New Delhi on June 07, 2012

Elaborating the achievements of his ministry, Mr. Khurshid said: During the Eleventh Plan, the Ministry could successfully operationalize the scholarship programmes in which 1.42 crore scholarships were given against a target of 93.37 lakh. Prime Minister’s New 15-Point Programmes were successfully operationalized and under the Area Development Programme, Rs. 2,942 crore were spent to improve infrastructure in the 90 minority concentration districts (MCD).

However, in its 27th Report (presented in Parliament on 9th May 2012), the Standing Committee of Parliament on Social Justice and Empowerment (2011-2012) pointed out underutilization of funds (below 50%) of Multi-sectoral Development Program (MsDP) in Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) since the mega program of Ministry of Minority Affairs launched in 2008-09. The report said that since the inception of MsDP in 2008, an amount of Rs. 2359.39 Crore has been released against which expenditure of only Rs. 1174.93 Crore has been reported by the States/UTs. The report criticized the minority ministry for casual approach towards the program.

Counting the achievements in the economic sector, Mr. Khurshid said the Priority Sector Lending rose from 10.60% in 2007-08 to 14.83% in 2011-12 and in recruitment to Central Government services, it rose from 6.93% in 2006-07 to 11.99% in 2010-11. The Minister also highlighted that achievements would have been much better if the implementation and delivery mechanisms in some States had worked more efficiently. In this regard, he suggested a number of improvements envisaged in the Twelfth Five Year Plan. He mentioned that the Ministry would like to constitute an Equal Opportunity Commission during the Twelfth Plan which will provide a level playing field for all deprived groups. He also mentioned that the Government would very soon introduce the Wakf (Amendment) Bill in the Parliament and enhance the outreach of Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programmes.

Ministers in charge of minority welfare along with senior officers attended the Conference and offered their suggestions. After a detailed discussion with the State officials presided over by the Secretary (Minority Affairs), some consensus suggestions were noted, important among them include making MsDP block specific in place of district and making scholarship schemes demand-driven and directly transferable to students’ account.

Some consensus suggestions:

1. In order to make the Area Development Programmes more focused, blocks (in place of districts) should be made the units of planning. In case the required data is not available for all blocks, the criteria for declaring minority concentration districts (MCDs) should be brought down from 25% to 15% of minority population.

2. There are many towns and village clusters which could not be included in the MCD programmes. They should be taken up separately for developmental schemes.

3. In order to increase the outreach of various programmes, NGOs, Self-Help Groups, private institutions etc. should be involved in the process of implementation.
4. Social audit system should be introduced as integral part of minority welfare schemes in order to establish accountability.

5. Looking at the success of scholarship schemes, it was felt that these schemes should be made demand-driven so that 100% saturation can be achieved in the Twelfth Plan.

6. In order to ensure timely transfer of funds, the scholarship money should be transferred electronically to the account of the students as far as practicable.

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