UP to spend Rs 1,800 cr on minorities' schemes during FY14

DMs in 45 districts have been directed to prepare schemes worth Rs 10 cr for each block, town & town areas under their jurisdiction

Uttar Pradesh will spend Rs 1,800 crore on development programmes in the minorities-dominated pockets during 2013-14.

The respective district magistrates in 45 districts have been directed to prepare schemes worth Rs 10 crore for each block, town and town areas under their jurisdiction.

The 45 districts include Rae Bareli and Sultanpur, the pocket boroughs of the Gandhi family; and Etawah, Kannauj and Etah, the strongholds of the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP.

Two districts in the National Capital Region (NCR) viz. Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar are also on the list.

The draft proposals would incorporate the percentage of the minorities’ population in the separate pockets and ‘critical gaps’ pertaining to basic amenities, education, health, skills development etc.

Besides, villages and rural areas would be listed where minorities’ population is at least 50% for running the development schemes.

In the recent meeting of Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP), state chief secretary Jawed Usmani directed if some minorities-dominated blocks and town areas could not be included in earlier proposals, they be also included.

MsDP is run by the union ministry of minority affairs for the socioeconomic growth of the minorities.

Minority welfare secretary Leena Johri informed that schemes worth Rs 1,015 crore had been implemented across 21 districts in UP during the 11th Plan (2007-12) based on the baseline survey.

The remaining districts, where MsDP would be implemented, are Saharanpur, Bijnore, Muzaffarnagar, Shravasti, Balrampur, Siddharth Nagar, Bulandshahr, Baghpat, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Bareilly, Barabanki, Rampur, J P Nagar (Amroha), Meerut, Bahraich, Moradabad, Gonda, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sitapur, Basti, Ghazipur, Maharajganj, Aligarh, Firozabad, Hardoi, Unnao, Kanpur City, Jalaun, Faizabad, Mahoba, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Ambedkar Nagar and Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadohi) and Azamgarh.