Nitish govt anti-minorities: Khurshid

Charging the Nitish Kumar government with being 'anti-minorities', Union Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid on Sunday said it had failed to take advantage of Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP).

Charging the Nitish Kumar government with being 'anti-minorities', Union Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid on Sunday said it had failed to take advantage of Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP).

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"The Bihar government's apathetic attitude towards implementing minority welfare schemes had caused a setback to the implementation of the minority welfare programmes in the state," Khurshid told reporters in Patna.

Rs 523.20 crore were allocated to the state for taking measures to improve the lot of the minorities, particularly Muslims during the 11th plan period but more than 50 per cent of the funds allocated by the Centre for development of Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) remained unutilsed.

Quoting from his July 9 letter to Kumar, Khurshid said the Centre had so far released Rs 122.28 crore under MSDP. The state government had, however, submitted expenditure report of just Rs 23.49 crore as on June 30 which is just 19.21 per cent of the released amount.

The ministry of minority affairs was also yet to receive utilisation certificate and proposals for release of second instalments for projects sanctioned under the MSDP, except for Purnea district, had been released the second instalment of Rs 14.36 crore.

He also charged the state government with not properly utilising the central fund for improving the Madarsas in Bihar, particularly in the seven minority dominated districts.

Khurshid said the UPA government at the Centre had implemented 90 per cent recommendations of Rajendra Sachchar Commission and after implementing it in totality would consider the Justice Rangnath Mishra report.

Referring to the coming state assembly polls, he said Congress would contest all the 243 seats on its own and claimed that the traditional voters of the party - minorities, dalits and forward castes were returning to the party fold.