NO DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MINORITIES IN IMPLEMENTING WELFARE PROGRAMMES,
SAYS DR. SATYANARAYAN JATIYA
The Minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya has denied that minorities
especially Muslims are getting lowest priority in the schemes
and programmes of the government. He told the Rajya Sabha in a
written reply today that his Ministry is implementing a 15-Point
Programme for welfare of all minorities including the Muslims.
In addition the Ministry is implementing various assistance schemes
for the welfare of the minorities. He said that the National Minorities
Development and Finance Corporation has distributed Rs. 388.84
crore as term loan to cover 1.08 lakh beneficiaries. The Corporation
also provided Rs. 6.73 crore as micro-finance to cover 46, 587
beneficiaries. Dr. Jatiya said that the Maulana Azad Foundation
has distributed 49.40 crore to 406 NGOs upto March this year.
He said that the Central Government provided as grant to the Foundation
Rs.2.85 crore during 2000-2001 and Rs.3.00 crore from 1st April
to 31st December 2001. Dr, Jatiya said that the Central Wakf Council
has disbursed Rs.22 crore for 103 projects for development of
urban Wakf properties. He said that the Council has dispersed
Rs.1.47 crore under educational schemes during the last financial
year.
