Mangaluru: The Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim chaired a meeting along with the government officials to discuss the ‘Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities’.
Addressing the meeting at his office on Friday July 31, DC raised various questions with regard to the Programme and the proceedings of the development taking place in the district.
However, during the meeting the governmental officials along with the corporation representative were unable to provide proper statistical report on the any of the 15 points that were brought up.
In terms of education, the officials informed that around 85% of the children have been catered to under minority, although when the DC asked the breakup of the allotment, the officials said that under the ‘school grant’ and ‘maintenance grant’ there were no applications however, ‘out of school’ Rs 40,902 were granted and total 112 children were benefited.
Nevertheless, when the DC asked the criteria on which the selection was made, they were irresolute and said that the budget for the schemes were not enough and out of 50,000 applications only 3000 could be given relief.
With regard to providing electricity, the MESCOM in Mangaluru provided electricity under Ganga Kalyana to one household; IP set to 29 households and BJ/KJ no applicants; while under Bantwal under Ganga Kalyana 25 households and under Bhagya Jyothi scheme 5 were provided relief. When DC questioned about other taluks, the officials were absent.
Questioning the District Urban development cell officials, the DC asked about the number of people benefited, to which it was learnt that under National Urban Livelihood Mission around 235 beneficiaries were given loan, State Urban Livelihood Mission 417 beneficiaries were listed and 7.25% fund for the poor people 470 beneficiaries and lastly under the Vajapayee Urban Housing Scheme 254 beneficiaries were listed.
The DC also raised concerns over issues such as Food and Civil supplies, Women and Child development department, Labour department, Minority Development Corporation, among others.
By the end of the meeting the DC was disappointed as no proper statistic or information was provided. He also resented the absenteeism of the officials during the meeting. The DC called for another meeting within a month with a thorough survey and facts from all the departments.
About 15 Point Programme
Under the Programme, 15 development areas for the minorities section such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains of the society are adhered and various schemes have been implemented.
For education – seven schemes of the minority ministry were covered under the programme, including Post-Matric scholarship scheme, Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme, Merit-cum-Means Scholarship scheme, Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minority Students. It also covers four schemes of the HRD Ministry, one scheme of Ministry of Women and Child Development, two of Rural Development Ministry, three schemes of Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
