PM pushes for minority welfare

To ensure that the government's minority programmes deliver before the next general elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will soon be calling a meeting of different ministries for effective implementation of minority related schemes.

Updated on: Jul 26, 2012, 22:36:03 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

To ensure that the government's minority programmes deliver before the next general elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will soon be calling a meeting of different ministries for effective implementation of minority related schemes.

The decision came after analysis of the recent Uttar Pradesh elections revealed that the Congress did not get enough votes from the Muslim dominated areas despite the Central government initiating several programmes for them.

There is a strong view within the UPA government that it failed to project the developmental works carried out in minority dominated areas and its implementation of the 2008 Sachar committee recommendations. This is despite the fact that PM's 15-point programme for minorities, designed to address major recommendations of the Sachar Committee, is being implemented.

Before the PM takes a review meeting, the PMO has directed all social sector ministries to evaluate the outcome of the expenditure for welfare of minorities and make it part of its people information campaigns.

"Minority welfare will have to be part of the outreach programme for each ministry," said a recent circular issued by the Information and Broadcasting ministry on directions of the PMO.

To ensure that there is a campaign on minority welfare before next general elections in 2014, the Ministry of Programme Implementation and Statistics has been tasked with the job of providing disaggregated data to show how each of the five national minorities were benefiting from government programmes.

"A special unit to monitor the implementation of the Sachar panel recommendations for welfare of minorities has been set up," said a senior ministry official. "It will provide data to each ministry on the ground situation of its schemes for minorities".

Not willing to take any chances, the PMO has also asked the Planning Commission to have a dedicated plan for welfare of minorities in the 12th five-year plan (2012-17). A senior plan panel functionary said that there would be a separate section detailing the new initiatives being taken and benefits of the past ones for the minorities.

The panel functionary also said that the PM will take a meeting on minority affairs once different ministries come out with concrete plans on how to improve implementation of the existing schemes and plan new initiatives for the 12th plan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.