Centre approves policies for minorities welfare

The Cabinet decided that 15 per cent of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a new 15-point programme to prevent and control communal incidents and take care of minorities welfare and decided to earmark 15 per cent of funds in various schemes and programmes for nationally declared minorities.

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The 15-point programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress was monitorable, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Cabinet decided that 15 per cent of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes and programmes for the nationally declared minorities, he said.

The revised programme is also aimed at taking care of prevention of communal riots, prosecution of communal offences and rehabilitation of riot victims.

Under the category of enhancing education opportunities, equitable availability of ICDS services, improving access to school education, greater resources for teaching Urdu, modernising Madarsa education, scholarship for meritorious students from minority communities and improving educational infrastructure through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation would be covered.