The government has decided to increase the outlay for the Minority Affairs Ministry by nearly 50 per cent from Rs. 1,740 crore in the present fiscal to Rs. 2,600 crore in the next. Much of this allocation is aimed at providing scholarships at various levels to children from various minority communities.
Reacting to the budgetary proposal for 2010-11, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed said the higher allocation reflected the Finance Minister’s trust in the Ministry. “It shows the government’s seriousness towards this Ministry. It shows the Government recognises the responsibilities of this Ministry.”
Most of the schemes run by the Ministry are aimed at capacity building. Bulk of the allocation for the next fiscal has been set aside for the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme for Minorities in Selected Minority Concentration Districts with the scheme for giving pre-matric scholarships coming a close second. While the allocation for the multi-sectoral development programme has gone up by Rs. 356 crores, pre-matric scholarship scheme will get Rs. 225 crore more.
Further, Mr. Mukherjee informed Parliament that the nation was close to achieving the target of 15 per cent priority lending to minorities in the current year. And, he added, this would be maintained for the next three years.
Meanwhile, compared to previous years, when the Human Resource Development Ministry saw huge increases in allocation – owing to the push for universalisation of elementary education and expanding the intake capacity of higher education – its share of the Budget this time round is not staggering.
While the plan allocation for school education has gone up from Rs. 26,800 crore to Rs. 31,036 crore, that for higher education is up from Rs. 14,389 crore to Rs. 16,690 crore. Given that education is essentially driven by State governments, there was some good tidings in the Budget in that they have access to Rs. 3,675 crore for elementary education under the 13th Finance Commission grants for 2010-11.
