Ministers delve deeper into minority welfare

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala today appealed to state representatives to strengthen the field-level machineries for better delivery of services to the minorities.

Speaking at the National Conference of State Ministers for Minority Welfare, Pala called for constituting state-level and district-level committees exclusively for the development and fulfilment of minority welfare programmes.

The 7-8 June conference in Delhi was organised by the Ministry of Minority Affairs to review the achievements of Eleventh Plan and chart out the strategy and schemes for Twelfth Plan period in consultation with states.

Addressing the Conference, Minister of Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid mentioned that in spite of the fact that his Ministry being relatively young, the achievements over the Eleventh Plan was significant.

During the Eleventh Plan, the Ministry successfully executed scholarship programmes in which 1.42 crore scholarships were given against a target of 93.37 lakh.

Further, the 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).

Ministers in charge of minority welfare along with senior officers attended the conference and offered their suggestions, stated a release.

The conference came out with suggestions for making Area Development Programmes more focused; to increase the outreach of various programmes by involving NGOs, self-help groups and private institutions; and to introduce social audit system to establish accountability.

There was also a consensus in introducing the Wakf (Amendment) Bill at the earliest and on the establishment of Equal Opportunity Commission.