Outlay for minority ministry up by 74%

The Plan Outlay of the Ministry of Minority Affairs has been enhanced from Rs 1,000 crore in BE 2008-09 to Rs 1,740 crore in 2009-10,registering an increase of 74 per cent.

Announcing this while presenting the Union Budge in Parliament on Monday, the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukheree said that this includes Rs 990 crore for Multi-Sectoral Development Programme for Minorities in selected minority concentration districts, grants-in-aid to Maulana Azad Education Foundation which is almost doubled, and provisions for National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation and Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarships for Minorities.

Allocations have also been made for the new schemes of National Fellowship for Students from the Minority community and Grants-in-aid to Central Wakf council for computerization of records of State Wakf Boards.

Mukherjee announced that a sum of Rs 25 crore each has been allocated for the two campuses that the Aligarh Muslim University has decided to establish at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala. -- PIB