Ahead of the Assembly election in Bihar, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has again locked horns with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over spending on Muslim welfare. At a press conference on Monday where he presented a half-yearly review of his Ministry's performance, Salman Khursheed underscored Bihar's poor utilisation of Central funds, released under the Multi-sectoral Developmental Programme (MsDP) for Minority Concentration Districts.
A reporter drew the Minister's attention to Mr. Kumar's allegation that the Centre did not provide adequate funds for the development of madrasas in Bihar's Muslim-concentrated districts. Mr. Khursheed retorted that Mr. Kumar was no one to complain considering his State's poor record in utilising Central funds for Muslim welfare. The Bihar government, he pointed out, had spent only 19. 20 per cent of Central funds amounting to around Rs. 122 crore released for MsDP projects. “Let him first spend this money,” he said.
In a letter to Mr. Kumar in July this year, Mr. Khursheed had strongly refuted the former's allegation that the Centre was negligent towards minority welfare in his State. He said of around Rs. 122 crore released for Bihar as MsDP funds, only Rs. 23.49 crore had been utilised by the State government.
“U.P. fares better”
Mr. Khursheed said Uttar Pradesh had performed far better in MsDP with a fund utilisation of 39 per cent. He also praised the utilisation records of Manipur (42 per cent), Jharkhand (40 per cent ) and Jammu and Kashmir ( 36 per cent).
The Minister commended his Ministry on its all-round performance: expanding access to credit, opening bank branches, increasing minority representation in government and PSU recruitment, providing the infrastructure to skill education and improving the living conditions of rural and urban Muslims.
However, the Ministry was especially focused on making scholarships its flagship programme, he said. Mr. Khursheed admitted that the programme had its share of problems. Students were hampered on account of lack of awareness, missed deadlines and bank account-related difficulties. Even with all this, the number of scholarships awarded had consistently exceeded the target. The Ministry awarded 5.13 lakh pre-matric scholarships against a target of 3 lakh in 2008-2009. In 2009-2010, the figure achieved was 17. 29 lakh against a target of 15 lakh, and with seven months to go in this financial year the Ministry had already given out 7.41 lakh scholarships against a target of 20 lakh.
